Iran says Doha agreement is a positive first step, oil futures rise

Iran's Petroleum minister, Bijan Zangeneh, welcomed the agreement reached on the previous day by Russia, Saudi Arabia and two other members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Doha, Qatar to freeze their output of crude oil at January's level, but refused to say whether the Central Asian country would do the same, according to Javier Blas, an energy correspondent at Bloomberg.

Those remarks sent crude oil futures to their session highs.

Some earlier reports on social media had indicated that Zanganeh had rejected the Doha agreement.

As of 15:40GMT front month Brent crude futures were up by 4.2% to $33.58 per barrel on the ICE and West Texas Intermediate by another 3.68% to $30.15.