When OPEC’s president told the group on August 8th that it will hold informal talks in Algiers next month, markets were encouraged to buy more oil. At the same time, Saudi Arabia signaled its willingness to discuss taking action to stabilize markets.

Since then, money managers have increased wagers on rising crude prices by the most since January as futures rebounded from a three-month low. Prices have jumped accordingly.

According to Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih, the talks between OPEC members and other producers could certainly result in action to stabilize the market. OPEC’s website mentioned that members of the organization are in “constant deliberations.”

Saudi-Iran Differences

Disagreements between Saudi Arabia and Iran resulted in the end of a proposal to freeze production at an April summit in Doha. The kingdom insisted it wouldn’t restrain output without commitments from all OPEC members, including Iran, which has boosted crude production and exports after years of sanctions were lifted in January.

Hedge funds have bolstered their long position in West Texas Intermediate crude by 17,154 futures and options combined during the week ended Aug. 9, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. WTI rose 8.3 percent to $42.77 a barrel in the report week. Prices gained 0.8 percent to $44.85 a barrel as of 1 p.m. Hong Kong time on Monday after posting the biggest weekly gain since April.

Still, increasing U.S. crude stockpiles and weakening demand from the nation’s refineries may continue to weigh on prices. Crude supplies rose 1.06 million barrels million as of Aug. 5, Energy Information Administration data show. Over the past five years, refiners’ hunger for oil has fallen an average of 1.2 million barrels a day from July to October.