Oil prices finished higher on Monday following comments from OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia that the cartel and other major oil producers could extend their production cuts beyond 2018. February West Texas Intermediate crude which expired at the New York Mercantile Exchange settlement on Monday—rose 12 cents, or 0.2%, to settle at $63.49 a barrel, on the hells of a 1.5% loss last week. The March contract picked up 26 cents, or 0.4%, to end at $63.57 a barrel. Brent for March climbed 42 cents, or 0.6%, to settle at $69.03 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange. Oil prices moved up “as OPEC and Russia have signaled their intent to cooperate on supply beyond the current deal terms,” said Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment at Interactive Investor, in a note.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih told reporters that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of noncartel members led by Russia should find ways to continue their cooperation on production after their deal to cut output expires at the end of 2018. “We should not limit our efforts to 2018. We need to be talking about a longer framework for our cooperation,” he said.

The comments mark the most explicit call for the major oil producers to keep supporting the market into 2019. WTI crude oil prices have already risen almost 50% from around $43 a barrel in June, partly because of the group’s deal to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels a day in an effort to reduce the global supply glut. But “OPEC and Russia are just one half of the supply story, as producers in the U.S., Canada and Brazil are all expected to ramp up output in response to higher oil prices. With these new dynamics in the oil market, the possibility of higher supply is a major downside risk for the oil price,” said O’Keeffe.

In a monthly report released last week, the International Energy Agency predicted U.S. production will rise above 10 million barrels a day in 2018, a level not visited since 1970. Still, data from Baker Hughes on Friday showed that the number of active U.S. oil-drilling rig fell by 5 to 747 this week, following a rise of 10 rigs a week earlier. The latest figures imply a slowdown in domestic oil-drilling activity.

Meanwhile, the Senate pases a bill Monday to reopen the U.S. government. Federal operations were expected to be back at full capacity Tuesday. The government shutdown over the weekend had raised concerns of a delay in the weekly release of the Energy Information Administration’s weekly petroleum supply report, but an EIA spokesperson Monday, ahead of the Senate vote, that publications would continue to be released as scheduled.

Despite talk of a surge in U.S. shale-oil production, the domestic oil-drilling rig count was down last week and “traders will be worried that the recent plunge in U.S. oil inventories will ever stop,” said Phil Flynn, senior market analyst at Price Futures Group. “It wont this week, as we should see another big drop.” Back on Nymex Monday, February gasoline climbed 0.9% to $1.88 a gallon, while February heating oil fell by less than 0.1% to $2.057 a gallon. February Natural gas added 1.2% to $3.224 per million British thermal units.