NEW YORK, Sept 9 — Oil prices rose more than 1 per cent today after the new Saudi energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, confirmed expectations that there would be no radical change in his country’s oil policy.

Prince Abdulaziz, son of Saudi King Salman and a long-time member of the Saudi delegation to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), replaced Khalid al-Falih yesterday.

"The move is bullish for oil prices,” Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group in Chicago, said in a note. "Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman is known as an oil production cutter. He has been instrumental in securing production cuts in the past.”

Brent crude futures gained 74 cents, or 1.2 per cent, to US$62.28 a barrel by 10.40am EDT (1440 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose US$1.06, or 1.9 per cent, to US$57.58 a barrel.

Prince Abdulaziz said today the pillars of Saudi Arabia’s policy would not change and a global deal to cut oil production by 1.2 million barrels per day would survive.

He added that the so-called Opec+ alliance between Opec and non-member countries including Russia was staying for the long term.

Russia’s oil output in August exceeded its quota under the Opec+ agreements.

Opec oil output in August rose for the first month this year as higher supply from Iraq and Nigeria outweighed restraint by Saudi Arabia and losses caused by US sanctions on Iran.

The United Arab Emirates’ energy minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said yesterday that Opec and non-Opec producers were "committed” to achieving oil market balance.

The Opec+ deal’s joint ministerial monitoring committee meets on Thursday in Abu Dhabi.

Trade and geopolitical tensions are affecting the market, Mazrouei said.

Executives at the annual Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference said today that they expect oil prices this year to be pressured by uncertainties surrounding the global economy, the US-China trade war and increasing US supplies.

Elsewhere, China’s crude oil imports gained about 3 per cent in August from a month earlier, customs data showed yesterday, buoyed by a recovery in refining margins despite a persistent surplus of oil products and tepid demand.

The United States is "very concerned” about China’s purchases of Iranian oil, Dan Brouillette, deputy secretary of the US Department of Energy, said today.

The United States last year withdrew from a nuclear deal that world powers had done with Iran in 2015, and re-imposed sanctions to strangle Iran’s vital oil trade. — Reuters