Oil prices rise after Saudi says OPEC could cut output

Oil prices edged up on Tuesday, after Saudi Arabia warned that OPEC could cut output to correct a recent drop in oil futures.

Brent crude futures rose 32 cents to $96.80 a barrel by 0004 GMT, after a choppy session on Monday when they dropped by more than $4 before paring losses to trade near flat.

US West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 37 cents to $90.73 a barrel by 0004 GMT.

The benchmarks are down about 12% and 8% this month, respectively.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries stands ready to reduce production to correct the recent oil price fall driven by poor futures market liquidity and macro-economic fears, which has ignored extremely tight physical crude supply, OPEC‍‍`s leader Saudi Arabia said on Monday.

Saudi state news agency SPA cited Saudi Arabia‍‍`s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman as telling Bloomberg that OPEC+ has the means and flexibility to deal with challenges.

Meanwhile, Europe faces fresh disruption to energy supplies due to damage to a pipeline system bringing oil from Kazakhstan through Russia, adding to concerns over a plunge in gas supplies.

Limiting price gains, Iran accused the United States on Monday of procrastinating in efforts to revive Tehran‍‍`s 2015 nuclear deal - a charge denied by Washington, which said a deal was closer than two weeks ago because of apparent Iranian flexibility.

In US supply, market participants awaited industry data due out at 4:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday. US crude oil and gasoline stockpiles likely dropped last week, while distillate inventories edged up, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.