The global oil market has stabilised within a range of $50-$60 a barrel, according to both UK-headquartered oil company BP and the Washington-based IMF.

Brian Gilvary, BP's chief financial officer, said he is not counting on prices going higher, but is confident the market is stabilising within the $50-$60 a barrel range of the past year.

 “We are back to a new normality,” he told the Financial Times in an interview on 31 October. “We’ve come through the oil price correction and we’ve got things back into balance earlier than planned.”

Gilvary's comments came amid similar predictions from the IMF.

The fund said in its Regional Economic Outlook for the Middle East and Central Asia that it expected oil to trade at $50 to $60 a barrel for the “medium term”.