London (CNN Business) – OPEC, Russia and other oil producing nations have agreed to deeper production cuts in an attempt to support crude prices in the face of a looming supply glut mainly due to booming US output.
Following a meeting in Vienna, OPEC said Friday the producer group would reduce supplies by an additional 500,000 barrels per day, bringing the total cuts to 1.7 million barrels daily.
Led by Saudi Arabia, OPEC and its allies have been limiting their production since 2017. Their existing agreement aimed to remove 1.2 million barrels per day from world markets and is due to expire in March 2020.
OPEC’s statement made no mention of extending the cuts through June or even December 2020, as some analysts had expected. Still, oil markets were supported by news of the additional cuts and pushed US crude prices up by 0.8% to $59 a barrel. Read more…