Brent widens gains to three-week high

Brent maintained its gains in American trade for the fifth straight session, marking three-week highs on hopes of a resolve to the US-China trade dispute as talks commence in Beijing. 

As of 13:38 GMT, Brent rose to $58.30 a barrel, with the highest since December 18 at $58.87, and a session-low at $57.23. 

Brent rose 3.4% on Friday, the fourth profit in a row, and the longest such streak since October. 

High-level talks from China and the US have started in Beijing for two days amid hopes it might progress negotiations on the trade dispute and reach an agreement to end current tensions. 

Oil prices are also boosted by a drop in OPEC output last month by the fastest pace in two years, with Saudi Arabia starting its share of output cuts early before January. 

OPEC pumped 32.68 million bpd in December, down 460 thousand bpd, the largest such monthly decline since January 2017. 

OPEC and independent producers reached an agreement in December to cut global output by 1.2 million bpd starting January, with OPEC taking up 800 thousand bpd of the deal. 

Saudi Arabia alone cut 400 thousand bpd of output in December, and announced to plans for even steeper cuts than agreed upon in the deal.