VIENNA (AP) - With cuts to oil production working in driving up prices, OPEC oil ministers and their non-OPEC allies will likely extend the strategy at a meeting Thursday.
Benchmark prices are now well above or close to $60 a barrel, depending on the grades. With these levels last seen about two years ago, the bets are that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will try to keep supply tight by prolonging output reductions agreed to a year ago.
But keeping to production limits might backfire over the longer run. With prices now at two-year highs, U.S. producers who mothballed operations when oil was cheap are already coming back into the market. That could result in renewed oversupply, driving down the value of crude.
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