2020.04.0310:31:00UTC+00Oil Extends Gains As OPEC Calls For Emergency Meeting

Oil prices rose sharply on Friday to extend gains from the previous session as OPEC scheduled an urgent meeting with Russia and other oil producers next week to agree output cuts and end a brutal price war.

Benchmark Brent crude jumped 9.6 percent to $32.81 per barrel, after having soared 21 percent in the previous session.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 4.8 percent at $26.54 a barrel, after having climbed nearly 25 percent the previous day.

The meeting, called by Saudi Arabia, will be held via video conference on Monday. It will be open to all producers including producers from outside the OPEC+ alliance.

The meeting comes a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he expects Russia and Saudi Arabia to cut somewhere between 10 and 15 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil production - an unprecedented amount representing 10 percent to 15 percent of global supply. Trump has not offered to lower U.S. oil output.