The price of Brent crude rose to a one-year high of $53.58 a barrel yesterday after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his support for OPEC's plan to cap oil production.
Ministers from the world's largest oil-producing countries are meeting at a conference in Istanbul this week to discuss ways to restrict the record output levels seen over the past two years.
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Speaking at the World Energy Conference, the president of Russia (which is not a member of OPEC) said: "We believe freezing or even reducing oil production is the only way to save the stability of the energy sector."
He added: "We support the recent initiative of OPEC to fix oil production limits. We hope that at the OPEC meeting in November, the idea will be embodied in an official agreement, giving a positive signal to the markets and investors."
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The announcement came after Kahlid al-Falil, Saudi Arabia's energy minister, said it was possible oil prices could rise above $60 a barrel by the end of the year.
At the conference, al-Falil said: "I think the role of responsible producers around the world, and Saudi Arabia considers itself to be the leading one, is to try to balance supply and demand in a very responsible way."
On 28 September, OPEC countries agreed to cut the daily supply of oil by 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) to between 32.5 million and 33 million. Crude oil prices surged by nearly 6% overnight on news of the deal.
However, Iraq - the second biggest producer of oil - said over the weekend it wanted to increase its output by 2017, according to Reuters.
