Mubasher: Oil prices stabilised on Tuesday, holding onto gains seen in the preceding session, as remarks from Washington and Beijing kept hopes alive that the world’s two leading economies could soon agree on ending their bitter trade war, according to Reuters.

By 7:07 am GMT, US Nymex crude futures declined by nearly 0.2% to $57.92 per barrel, having climbed by 0.4% on Monday, while global benchmark Brent futures were little changed at $63.60 pb, after rising by 0.4% in the previous session.

Senior trade officials from China and the US held discussions via the phone on Tuesday morning, China’s Commerce Ministry said, as both sides worked on inking an initial “Phase One” deal.

Furthermore, the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily tabloid, the Global Times, reported that both Beijing and Washington were closing to a “Phase One” trade agreement.

Although both sides have differences over the scale of tariff rollbacks on Chinese goods, they reached a “broad consensus.”

China is pressing for more tariff removals, which has been a major sticking point, while the US countered with demands of its own.

On the supply front, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are due to meet on 5 and 6 December, in which the previously agreed supply cuts of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd), are widely set to be extended to mid-2020.

The OPEC meeting will be followed by talks with other oil producers, including Russia.

This came with US investment bank JP Morgan expecting that the so-called OPEC+ alliance to extend its output restraints until the end of 2020.

In the US, crude inventories are set to have fallen by 300,000 bpd last week, according to Reuters-surveyed analysts.

Industry-funded group the American Petroleum Institute (API) will release its weekly report later in the day, to be followed by the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) official figures on Wednesday.