{"id":104029,"date":"2021-01-06T03:14:08","date_gmt":"2021-01-06T03:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/?p=104029"},"modified":"2021-01-06T03:14:08","modified_gmt":"2021-01-06T03:14:08","slug":"brent-oil-rises-to-highest-since-february-after-saudi-arabia-output-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fin2me.com\/markets\/brent-oil-rises-to-highest-since-february-after-saudi-arabia-output-cut\/","title":{"rendered":"Brent oil rises to highest since February after Saudi Arabia output cut"},"content":{"rendered":"
TOKYO (Reuters) – Brent oil prices rose on Wednesday to the highest since February after Saudi Arabia agreed to make bigger cuts in output than expected during a meeting with allied producers, while industry data showed U.S. crude stockpiles fell last week.<\/p> Brent crude rose as much as 0.6% to $53.94 a barrel, the highest since Feb. 26, 2020. It was at $53.79 a barrel at 0147 GMT and gained 4.9% on Tuesday.<\/p>\n U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures gained 13 cents, or 0.26%, to $50.06 a barrel. The contract on Tuesday closed up 4.6% at $49.93, its highest since Feb. 24, 2020.<\/p>\n Saudi Arabia, the world\u2019s biggest oil exporter, agreed on Tuesday to make additional, voluntary oil output cuts of 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in February and March, after a meeting with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other major producers that form the group known as OPEC+.<\/p>\n The reductions agreed by Saudi Arabia were included in a deal to persuade other producers in the OPEC+ group to hold output steady.<\/p>\n With coronavirus infections spreading rapidly in many parts of the world producers are trying to support prices as demand takes a hit from new lockdowns being put in place.<\/p>\n \u201cThe decision came as a huge surprise as the organisation struggled yesterday to agree to a deal,\u201d Capital Economics said in a note.<\/p>\n It \u201cadds weight to our view that the oil market will be in a deficit … which will help lift the price of Brent to $60 per barrel by end-year,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n OPEC member Iran\u2019s seizure of a South Korean tanker in the Gulf also supported prices on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Tehran denied it was holding the ship and its crew as hostages, a day after it seized the tanker while pushing for Seoul to release $7 billion of funds frozen under U.S. sanctions.<\/p>\n U.S. crude oil inventories dropped by 1.7 million barrels in the week to Jan. 1 to 491.3 million barrels, data from industry group the American Petroleum Institute showed late on Tuesday. [EIA\/S] [API\/S]<\/p>\n