By midday in Europe, light, sweet crude for January delivery was up 53 cents to $45.04 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, it rose as high as $45.47 before retreating.
In London, January Brent crude was up 45 cents to $45.05 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
OPEC President Chakib Khelil suggested Monday the group may slash as much as 2 million barrels a day, equaling a cut at the cartel‘s last Algeria meeting four years ago.
Mohammed Al-Aleem, Kuwait‘s oil minister, said Monday that OPEC should cut supply to help balance a large market surplus.
Investors will be watching for evidence OPEC members are adhering to any announced cuts, as exceeding quotas has dogged the organization throughout its history.
Many OPEC members based their budgets assuming oil prices would be above where they are now. The group‘s efforts to bolster prices — including output cuts totaling 2 million barrels a day in September and October — have been ignored by investors preoccupied with the worst economic slowdown to hit developed countries in decades.
"The market is still consumed with demand-side factors," Burg said. "We don‘t expect a recovery until the second half of next year, so there‘s potential for further negative news to have a dampening affect on the crude market."
In Germany, Europe‘s largest economy, a liter of regular unleaded dipped to 1.132 euros ($1.54) or about $5.85 per gallon, which is 3.8 liters. On Dec. 1, it was 1.166 euros per liter.
"Until now it has been mainly the U.S. driver that has benefited from the drop in oil prices," said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix in Switzerland. "The continued weakness on oil combined with the fall of the dollar will now transfer more of the price correction to the European pumps."
In the United States, the average price for regular gasoline fell to a low of $1.6559 per gallon on Friday and has risen only minimally since.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose 1.85 cents to $1.0554 a gallon. Heating oil gained 3.14 cent to $1.4915 a gallon while natural gas for January delivery fell 2 cents to 5.625 per 1,000 cubic feet.
