Oil prices steady ahead of OPEC meeting

Oil prices stabilised on Tuesday ahead of the OPEC gathering scheduled on Friday in Vienna.

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh on Tuesday urged the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members to respect the shared production ceiling of 30 million barrels a day, adding that the Iranian output is expected to increase next year when international sanctions are lifted, Xinhua reported.

The OPEC maintained its output quota of 30 million barrels per day at June's meeting. The cartel's output is accounted for around 40 percent of the global crude output.

OPEC's crude production averaged 31.38 million barrels per day in October, according to OPEC's recent monthly oil market report.

While most analysts believed that OPEC will not cut the crude output at this meeting despite the huge price lost.

The West Texas Intermediate for January delivery moved up 20 cents to settle at $41.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for January delivery decreased 17 cents to close at $44.44 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange.