oil futures rose tuesday with us prices settling at their highest in almost three weeks a day ahead of a meeting of the organization of the petroleum exporting countries and their allies where producers are expected to consider a large production cut crudeoil prices rose for a second day as expectations built for opec to deliver a cut of more than 1 million barrels a day on wednesday when it holds its first inperson meeting since the start of the pandemic an empirical approach to the present fundamentals leads us to believe benchmark wti should be trading in the 7580 range although the current unpredictability within the market brings a warranted volatility premium said harry altham energy analyst emea  asia for stonex group in market commentary it therefore stands to reason that opec while analysing the market ahead of the decision will see an output cut as being justified within current market conditions the oilproducing group is considering an output reduction of as much as 2 million barrels a day and may also discuss smaller reductions from 1 million to 15 million barrels a day bloomberg reported tuesday citing delegates analysts said the prospect of a large output cut has shifted the focus away from fears of global recession toward a tight physical market a large cut in opecs production target however could result in a more modest reduction in actual output analysts said noting that the group was already producing well below its current target readwhy an opec oil production cut could be less than meets the eye there are are only a handful of members who will actually need to reduce output if the group announces a large cut said warren patterson head of commodities strategy at ing in a note read opec could cut oil production because its trying to halt a sharp crude selloff citing figures from bloomberg patterson noted that opec supply increased by 230000 barrels a day in september to average 2989 million barrels a day with the rise driven largely by libya which is exempt from the output agreement and whose output grew by 120000 barrels a day but output from opec members that were part of the opec supply deal saw output average 2553 million barrels a day last month well below their target of 2675 million barrels a day he noted also seewhy california is paying nearly 70 more for gasoline at the pump than the rest of the country