Oil Rises on Speculation Producers Getting Together

Oil prices rose on Tuesday, heading for the first three-day gain in five weeks, on signals that the world's biggest producers of crude may act jointly to support prices, which have halved over the past year.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark traded up 75 cents at the $50.00 a barrel milestone for the first time in two weeks by 1243 GMT, or 1.4 percent day on day. It rose 2.3 percent on Monday.

The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate crude, was up 36 cents at $46.62 a barrel. The contract gained 1.6 percent in the previous session.

"The market is possibly moving on speculation that OPEC and non-OPEC countries will find an agreement to cooperate," said Carsten Fritsch, senior oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

Russia's energy minister said Russia and Saudi Arabia had discussed the oil market in a meeting last week and would continue to consult each other. (by Aaron Sheldrick, Reuters)