Oil prices near $95 a barrel on tight supply

LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters): Global oil benchmark Brent crude neared $95 a barrel on Monday, with investors focused on the prospect of a widening supply deficit in the fourth quarter after Saudi Arabia and Russia extended supply cuts.
Brent crude futures rose 47 cents to $94.40 a barrel by 1421 GMT while US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 79 cents at $91.56. WTI climbed by more than $1 earlier in the session.
Brent and WTI have climbed for three consecutive weeks to touch their highest since November and are on track for their biggest quarterly increases since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in the first quarter of 2022.
Citi on Monday became the latest bank to predict that Brent prices could exceed $100 a barrel this year.
Saudi Arabia and Russia this month extended a combined 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of supply cuts to the end of the year.
These curbs could push the market into a 2 million bpd deficit in the fourth quarter and a subsequent drawdown in inventories could leave the market exposed to further price spikes in 2024, ANZ analysts said.
The question is whether the cuts will continue into next year, Callum Macpherson, head of commodities at Investec, said, "given the risk that higher prices must surely, at some point, stimulate US shale (oil output)".
Either way, demand concerns remain. China, considered the engine of oil demand growth, is a key risk because of its sluggish post-pandemic economic recovery, though its oil imports have remained robust.
A series of stimulus measures and a summer travel boom helped industrial output and consumer spending to rebound last month and Chinese refineries ramped up output, driven by strong export margins.
"Lack of protracted (economic) progress, nonetheless, will be viewed as a major setback on the demand side," said Tamas Varga of oil broker PVM.
Eyes will also be on central banks this week, including an interest rate decision from the U.S. Federal Reserve.