Oil prices have remained steady at $32 a barrel on Wednesday, supported by hopes of an agreement between Russia and Saudi Arabia later this week.

A deal would lead to output cuts and increasing oil prices, which crashed following the spread of Covid-19.

According to Reuters, Brent crude was down by $0.09, to $31.78 a barrel. In the previous trading day, the value slipped by over 3.6%.

Meanwhile, US crude CLc1 was up by $0.94, at $24.87 per barrel.

According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), US crude production is expected to fall by about 470,000 barrels per day (bpd). Meanwhile, demand for crude is set to sink by about 1.3Mbpd in 2020.

As per the data from industry group American Petroleum Institute (API), US crude inventories rose by 11.9 million barrels to 473.8 million barrels.

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Rystad Energy Oil Markets head Bjornar Tonhaugen said: “The coming extraordinary producing-countries meeting is the only hope on the horizon for the market.

“Nobody wants to go short ahead of what could be a ‘positive surprise’ by OPEC+.”

Russia is likely to enter a production cuts deal with the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at the meeting to be held on Thursday.

However, Reuters has reported OPEC sources as saying a potential agreement would depend on the US doing its share. While the US has said its production is already declining without regulation, doubts persist as to whether Washington will contribute.