Brent oil price exceeds $56/bbl

The price of February futures for Brent crude oil rose by 0.11 percent and stood at $56.28 as of 04:05 EST. This is while the price of February futures for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil dropped by 0.24 percent to $53.92.

The US crude stocks have increased by 4.3 million barrels per day over the week ending Dec.23, according to American Petroleum Institute (API).

Another factor affecting the oil market are the expectations on the output cut from Jan.1, 2017.

During the Vienna meeting held Nov.30, OPEC members decided to implement a new OPEC-14 production target of 32.5 million barrels per day. Later, non-OPEC countries agreed to cut the oil output by 558,000 barrels per day during the meeting held Dec.10.

Eleven non-OPEC countries agreed to reduce the oil output: Azerbaijan, Kingdom of Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, Republic of Sudan, and Republic of South Sudan.

OPEC and non-OPEC countries have pledged to implement the reached deal from Jan.1, 2017.