Jakarta,- World crude oil prices edged up, after hitting a 2-month low. The slight increase in oil prices occurred as market participants waited for upcoming US inflation indicators and monthly reports from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) this week.

At the opening of trading today Tuesday (14/5/2024) at 10:35 WIB, the price of WTI crude oil opened slightly up 0.08% at US $ 79.12 per barrel, as well as the price of Brent crude oil opened 0.09% higher at US $ 83.46 per barrel.

Benchmark contracts settled higher on Monday on signs of increased demand in the US and China, the world's two largest oil consumers.

“Oil prices were slightly higher overnight but remained in a broad holding pattern over the past week, with upcoming US inflation data keeping some doubts at bay,” said Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG.

Investors are awaiting US Consumer Price Index data due on Wednesday for clues on when the Federal Reserve will consider cutting interest rates.

“Looking ahead, OPEC's monthly oil report will be in focus to provide an update on global oil demand, with some attention on whether previous optimistic guidance around the summer travel season will continue to hold,” Yeap said.

OPEC's latest monthly oil market report will be released on Tuesday, based on OPEC's website.

Meanwhile, the market is also watching wildfires in remote areas of western Canada that could disrupt the country's oil supply.

Firefighters on Monday raced to extinguish one fire in British Columbia and two in Alberta near the center of the country's oil sands industry.

No operational disruptions were reported. But Alex Hodes, analyst at energy broker StoneX, said Canada's production capacity of 3.3 million barrels per day was “very likely to be affected”.

Markets also continued to react to optimistic comments from Iraq's oil minister, Hayyan Abdul Ghani, over the weekend, according to a note from ANZ analysts.

Ghani said on Sunday that Iraq would honor voluntary production cuts made by OPEC+, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Russia, and other non-OPEC producers, at its next meeting on June 1.

That reversed an earlier statement on Saturday in which he said that Iraq had made enough voluntary reductions and would not agree to new production cuts.