Oil Prices Rally as OPEC Extraordinary Meeting Possibility Emerges

Oil prices have rebounded from Wednesday's historic low, reaching the $30 per barrel mark in late afternoon trading.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Generic US West Texas Intermediate crude futures reached a peak of $30.18 per barrel at 13:05 local time (18:05 GMT) before falling back to $29.71 per barrel by 15:25, in a overall rally over 10 percent compared to Wednesday's closing price of $26.55 per barrel, the lowest since May 2003.

Brent Crude generic futures traded on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) also rallied late afternoon, reaching $29.77 per barrel by 5:05 GMT and later sliding to $29.45 per barrel by 20:20 GMT in an increase of over 6 percent since Wednesday.

The oil price rally took place after Nigerian Petroleum Resources Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu's remarks on the OPEC cartel's extraordinary meeting early March. The organization had agreed to hold a meeting in case prices tumbled below $35 per barrel, the minister said, adding that OPEC is still split on the issue of taking action to stem the free fall.

On Wednesady, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir denied allegations that Riyadh intentionally drives down global oil prices by refusing to cut production. Brent crude prices plunged from $115 per barrel to $48.5 per barrel between June 2014 and January 2015. Despite the decline in global prices, OPEC resolved to continue production at the 30 million barrels per day level.