oil futures settle higher on wednesday as reported comments from saudi arabia at an organization of the petroleum exporting countries seminar raised the potential for tighter crude supplies saudi energy minister prince abdulaziz bin salman said that opec and its allies would do “whatever necessary” to support the oil market according to various news reports the comment followed the saudi arabia’s extension of its voluntary 1 million barrel per day output cut through august west texas intermediate crude for august delivery clq23 climbed 2 or 29 to settle at 7179 a barrel on the new york mercantile exchange