Oil inched up on Thursday

International benchmarks for oil prices edged higher on Thursday (25 August) as Iran signalled that the country would join OPEC meeting this September. Despite the widespread skepticism that OPEC would come to agree on any production cap, this has given market hope to push prices up. Meanwhile, there are several bearish factors including the latest US commercial crude inventories report and also a small drop in Chinese net crude import in July.

WTI closed at $47.33/barrel (+$0.56) September delivery

Brent closed at $49.67/barrel (+$0.62) October delivery