Saudi officials are seeking to transform Saudi Aramco into the world’s most valuable publicly traded company, which they say is worth about $2tn.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was up 50 cents a barrel at $56.96 by 1440 GMT (9:40 a.m. ET). U.S. light crude CLc1 was up 45 cents a barrel at $53.71. Both contracts rose by around 2 percent on Wednesday.

The decline in December comes as OPEC, which controls around 40 percent of global supply, is planning to curb output in a bid to boost oil prices. The organization reached a historic deal last month with Russia and other non-members to cut global production by almost 1.8 million barrels a day starting this month.

The analysts predicting that Brent will average $58 a barrel next year expect $53 in the first quarter and $56 in the second. West Texas Intermediate will be about $1.40 cheaper than Brent in 2017, the estimates show. WTI settled at $53.90 in New York on Tuesday.

But for all the talk of trade barriers, oil prices rising on supply cuts, and planned U.S. tax cuts and infrastructure spending, the global inflation outlook hasn't changed much, even if the Fed is sounding more worried about it.

Oil production companies recorded positive earnings from their upstream (exploration and production) operations in the third quarter of 2016 for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2014.

The first global crude supply pact in 15 years has underlined the growing energy alliance between Saudi Arabia and Russia, as the depth of the two-year oil slump forces co-operation between once unlikely partners.

Russia has also benefited this year from oil's price stabilization and a recent deal between major crude producers to curb output has raised expectations of higher prices next year. The central bank has a medium-term oil price forecast of $40 a barrel.

Front-month Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 45 cents, or 0.8 percent by 0951 GMT (4:51 a.m. ET) from their last settlement at $53.49 per barrel. The contract was up more than 13 percent this week, its biggest gain since March 2009. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures CLc1 were at $50.68, down 38 cents.

For China’s beleaguered oil sector, a deal by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output could offer a lifeline to an industry that has been hammered by low prices—and may also hasten its shift away from a heavy reliance on Saudi crude.