UPDATE 9-Oil futures rise on hopes of production cuts

* OPEC+ to hold video conference on Thursday
* U.S. crude inventories rise by 15.2 million barrels, most
on
record - EIA

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments
to settlement)
By Jessica Resnick-Ault
NEW YORK, April 8 (Reuters) - Oil futures strengthened late
in the session on Wednesday, buoyed by hopes that OPEC and its
allies will strike a production cut agreement on Thursday.
Crude has collapsed in 2020 because of a slide in demand due
to the coronavirus pandemic and excess supply. Brent dropped to
$21.65, its lowest since 2002, on March 30.
Thursday's video conference meeting between the Organization
of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies including
Russia - a group known as OPEC+ - was expected to be more
successful than their gathering in March, which ended in a
failure to extend supply cuts and a price war between Saudi
Arabia and Russia. "The pressure is enormous on these countries to cut," said
Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures group.
Market sentiment rose on expectations a deal could be
reached after media reports suggested Russia would cut its
output and Algeria's energy minister said he expected a
"fruitful" meeting.
Russia is ready to cut its oil output by 1.6 million barrels
per day, TASS news agency reported, citing an unnamed Energy
Ministry official the day before the online conference.

"The meeting will undoubtedly be fruitful in order to
rebalance the market through measures we will take tomorrow,"
Algerian Energy Minister Mohamed Arkab, also OPEC president,
told Algerian state news agency APS. A group of Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives
told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday that
economic and military cooperation between the two countries is
in jeopardy unless the kingdom helps stabilize prices by cutting
crude output. While OPEC sources have said a deal to cut production is
conditional on participation of the United States, doubts remain
as to whether Washington will contribute.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Energy said the country's
output was declining without government action.
Brent crude LCOc1 settled up 97 cents, or 3%, at $32.84 a
barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 rose
$1.46, or 6.2%, to settle at $25.09 a barrel.
The benchmarks pared some gains, with Brent turning negative
briefly, after U.S. government data showed crude inventories
last week soared by a record 15.2 million barrels, even as
production was cut by 600,000 barrels per day to 12.4 million
bpd. EIA/S
U.S. crude inventories rose as refiners slashed runs and the
delivery hub for WTI at Cushing, Oklahoma, posted a record
weekly build of 6.4 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration said. EIA/S