SINGAPORE: Oil prices have gone up after Saudi Arabia said it would make cuts of a million barrels per day (bpd) in July.
Other members of Opec+, a group of oil-producing countries, also agreed to continue cut in production in an attempt to shore up flagging prices, BBC News reported. The group accounts for around 40% of the world’s crude oil and its decisions can have a major impact on oil prices.
In Asia trade on Monday, Brent crude oil popped up by as much as 2.4% before settling at around $77 a barrel. Opec+ said production targets would drop by 1.4 million bpd from 2024.
The seven-hour meeting of the oil-rich nations Sunday came against a backdrop of falling energy prices. Oil prices soared when Russia invaded Ukraine last year but are now back at levels before the conflict began.
In October last year, Opec+, a formulation which refers to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners, agreed to cut production by two million bpd, about 2 percent of world demand.
In April this year, the group agreed on further cuts until the end of 2023. But Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Sunday’s negotiations led to “the extension of the deal until the end of 2024”.
