OPEC agrees to cut output by 1.2mbpd

November 30, 2016 - 12:1

OPEC clinched a deal to curtail oil supply by 1.2 million barrels per day, confounding skeptics as the need to clear a record global crude glut -- and prove the group’s credibility -- brought about its first cuts in eight years.

OPEC will reduce production to 32.5 million barrels a day, a delegate said Wednesday in Vienna, asking not to be identified as the decision isn’t yet public, Bloomberg News reported. Oil jumped 7.6 percent to $49.90 a barrel in London at 1:23 p.m. local time.

After weeks of often tense negotiations, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ three biggest producers -- Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran -- resolved differences over sharing the burden of cuts to rein in supply for the first time since 2008. Notably, it appears the Saudis accepted that Iran, as a special case, can raise production to about 3.9 million barrels a day. The agreement is also likely to include a reduction of about 600,000 barrels a day by non-OPEC countries.