On Thursday, oil prices closed slightly higher after a very bullish international energy report. Optimism that an On Thursday, oil prices closed slightly higher after a very bullish international energy report. Optimism that an extension to the output cut deal will be put in place also helped keep oil prices higher.output cut deal will be put in place also helped keep oil prices higher.

What may have capped gains would have been the new Baker Hughes report on oil rigs. WTI crude oil closed higher by 0.1% to $53.18 per share, while Brent crude oil closed higher by 0.1% t $55.89.

International Report

Oil prices traded higher after a report from the International Energy Agency, based out of Paris, stated that supply and demand were nearing each other in the global market. What this means is that the demand for oil is closely matched with an equal amount of output.

There was both good news and bad news with respect to the released report. The good news is that oil from industrialized nations fell fellfellfell fell fell fell. The bad news was that inventories still remained at an elevated level of 300 million barrels. That is still above the 5-year average. Still, the fact that supply has been met with a near equal amount of demand bodes well for oil prices.

Possible Deal

The oil market still has a lot of positives going for it. One event that everyone is optimistic about is the upcoming OPEC meeting. The meeting will take place towards the end of May. This is where OPEC and non-OPEC nations will come together to potentially extend the output cut deal.

For the first six months of 2017, OPEC was able to create a deal where nations would agree to cut a certain amount of supplies per day. The final number was to be able to cut at least 1.8 million barrels of oil per day from the global market. The new meeting taking place soon will deal with extending those cuts.

There is no guarantee that the extension of the cuts will be achieved. The problem is that Saudi Arabia and several other countries will not agree to a deal if many others are not on board.Things have been going really well with the pledged nations on cutting output. It is reported that in March the amount of cuts exceeded what the countries pledged they would cut. That is a really good thing because an extension would be a much needed reduction in global oil output.