Oil prices rose ahead of a meeting among crude producers scheduled on April 16 in Qatar capital Doha to discuss the output freeze.
The West Texas Intermediate for May delivery on Monday moved up 64 cents to settle at $40.36 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for June delivery increased 89 cents to close at $42.83 a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange, Xinhua news agency reported.
Nawal al-Fezaia, Kuwait's OPEC governor had said on April 5 that major oil producing countries can reach an agreement over a production freeze even if Iran does not join the move.
However, investment bank Goldman Sachs warned Monday that April 16 meeting could fail to tighten a heavily oversupplied market.
Last week, US oil companies cut oil rigs for a third week in a row to the lowest level since November 2009, oil service company Baker Hughes said on Friday.
