Oil is leaping on reports OPEC is considering a production freeze

Oil is headed upwards.

Prices of the major oil benchmarks are all higher on Monday following a report that oil cartel OPEC may cap its production.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the influential cartel is planning to meet informally at a conference in September to discuss the recent declines in oil prices. A possible freeze to production growth has been discussed by OPEC before, but no agreement has yet been reached.

The move would be a boon for the commodity, which has seen unbalanced supply-demand dynamics push prices to multi-year lows.

West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, was up 2.34% as of 10:07 a.m. ET to $42.78 a barrel. The price of Brent crude oil was also higher in trading.

The gains come after the oil market briefly slipped into a new bear market at the end of July, dropping 20% from its highs on June 8.

Investing.com