Oil Steady, OPEC Expected to Cut Supply [View All]

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil prices held steady on Friday just hours ahead of a key meeting of the OPEC producers' cartel, which was expected to agree to curb crude output running above the group's official production limits.


Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Venezuela and Algeria have called for the cartel, which controls more than half of global crude exports, to cut about 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oversupply after prices hit a four-month low this week.


U.S. light crude traded 3 cents down at $42.50 a barrel, more than $2 above the $40.45 low briefly struck on Wednesday.


"It'll be a tough job for OPEC to rein in overproduction, but it indicates how sentiment has changed from what was a very bullish market a couple of months ago to one with a bearish tone," said Daniel Hynes at ANZ Bank in Melbourne.

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