By Christopher Johnson
LONDON (Reuters) - Oil rose more than 2 percent on Monday after Russia said it was ready to meet other producers to discuss the market, where prices have more than halved from last year's highs due to a supply glut.
A report showing a fifth weekly fall in the number of oil rigs drilling in the United States also underpinned prices.
Brent jumped 2.7 percent to a high of $49.43 a barrel before easing back to around $49.33, up $1.20, by 1320 GMT. U.S. crude was $1.10 higher at $46.64 a barrel.
Russia, one of the world's top three oil producers, has been unwilling to cut output to support prices and last November declined to cooperate with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in order to defend its market share.
But Moscow now says it is prepared to meet OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers to discuss oil markets if such a meeting is called. A separate meeting between Russian and Saudi officials is being planned for the end of October, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said.
Russian oil output hit a new post-Soviet monthly high of 10.74 million barrels per day in September, despite a drop in global crude prices to 6-1/2-year lows in August.
Brent reached a low of almost $42 a barrel in August, down from a high above $115 in June 2014.
"Geopolitical tension created by Russia's involvement in Syria makes cooperation with OPEC highly unlikely," said Tamas Varga, oil analyst at London brokerage PVM Oil Associates. "But talk of such collaboration is supporting prices short-term."
Russia has angered Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states by helping support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with air strikes and military aid against rebel fighters.
Russia said on Monday its planes had struck 10 Islamic State targets in Syria.
Data on Friday showed U.S. energy firms cut the number of oil rigs by 26 in the latest week, the fifth straight weekly fall and a sign low oil prices are discouraging drillers.
But the global market still faces a heavy oversupply and oil stockpiles are near record highs in many parts of the world.
"We still are bearish on oil given the excess in the market, and the time required to clear all the excess crude and oil products supply," Abhishek Deshpande, oil analyst at French bank Natixis in London, told Reuters Global Oil Forum.
(Additional reporting by Meeyoung Cho in Seoul; Editing by Dale Hudson and William Hardy)
