OIL WARS: Brent Crude Oil Climbs Above $50 as OPEC Said Very Close to Deal.

OPEC is very close to a deal that would remove 1.4 million barrels a day of collective production, a delegate to a ministerial meeting underway in Vienna said. An agreement would include an additional 600,000 barrels a day of cuts from non-OPEC suppliers, the delegate said. Russia, the biggest producer outside the bloc, has said that if OPEC agrees individual country quotas, it is ready to participate, including possibly by reducing its output, a person familiar with Russian thinking said.

Ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries are meeting in the Austrian capital to weigh a deal first floated in September to collectively reduce output. Following days of discord, OPEC ministers on Wednesday showed optimism for a deal as United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said he expects “some good news” later in the day.

“The market is biting at every comment from OPEC and now it seems like a deal is possible,” said Jens Pedersen, an analyst at Danske Bank A/S. “It is imperative they show that they are able to agree on something following previous failed attempts.”

Oil traders aren’t the only ones biting. $50 is the breakeven point for a whole lot of idle frackers waiting to get their fields back into production.