以下为此文英文原文：Oil climbs to 4-year high above $81 a barrel
By Anjli Raval,Edward White in London, in Taipei
Oil prices rose above $81 a barrel to fresh four-year highs on Monday after global producers decided against further output increases despite demands from US President Donald Trump for action to cool prices.
Saudi Arabia, Russia and their allies inside and outside the Opec cartel declined to announce additional increases to production beyond what had been agreed in June during meetings in Algeria at the weekend.
US sanctions on Iran’s energy sector are due to come into effect in November, but they are already beginning to hit the country’s oil exports as buyers reduce purchases of Iranian barrels for fear of financial penalties.
“This is the oil market’s response to the ‘Opec+’ group’s refusal to step up its oil production,” said Carsten Fritsch at Commerzbank.
Brent crude reached a high of $81.39 in late London trading, an increase of $2.58 on the day and a level not seen since late 2014 when the energy sector went into a tailspin after a surge in production outpaced global demand.
Ben Luckock, co-head of oil trading at commodity house Trafigura, told an energy conference in Singapore on Monday that Brent could surpass $100 a barrel early next year, as oil supplies tighten when US sanctions against Iran are fully implemented.
West Texas Intermediate, the US marker, increased $1.71 a barrel to $72.49 in midday New York trading, its highest level since July.
Fears of tighter supplies have sent crude higher and spurred Mr Trump to push Saudi Arabia and its Opec allies to raise production to keep prices in check.
“The Opec monopoly must get prices down!” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday. US officials are worried about the impact higher crude prices may have on domestic fuel costs ahead of midterm elections in November.
In late 2016, global producers agreed to curb their output by 1.8m barrels a day to bring an oversupplied market back into balance. But countries cut their output by far greater levels after political turmoil in Venezuelan hit exports and disruptions affected production elsewhere.
The shortfall led producers to agree to raise output in June to bring production in line with the terms of the original output limits. This decision was upheld on Sunday, with ministers saying no further increases beyond this level were required at this time.
Khalid Al Falih, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, said in June that countries could rapidly add 1m b/d of production into the market. But this has yet to fully materialise, prompting oil traders and energy sector analysts to question how much big producer nations could raise supply to compensate for the losses from Iran.
Mr Falih said on Sunday he believed the oil market was “adequately supplied”. Despite rising prices, he added, buyers did not require much greater levels of production at this time.
“The biggest issue is not with the producing countries, it’s with the refiners, it’s with the demand,” Mr Falih said. But he added that output policy needed to be “responsive” in the event of any supply shortages or market surprises.
It is still unclear as to how severe the drop in Iranian exports will be, adding to bullish sentiment in the oil market. They have already fallen more than 500,000 b/d since May to below 2m b/d.
