Oil in the United States remained solid on Friday’s opening session following the deal of club OPEC and other non-members, including Russia, to prolong the output reductions in an effort to curb the bloated market.
International benchmark for oil prices London Brent crude added more than 6 cents to finish trading at $62.69 per barrel. Brent edged up by 0.7 percent or 46 cents from its last settlement. Brent added about 3.6 percent last month, surging for 3 consecutive months.
Crude futures in the United States dropped about 2 cents to finish at $57.38 per barrel after rising more than 0.2 percent or 10 cents to end at $57.40 per barrel on the previous session. Meanwhile for the whole month of November, it surged more than 5.6 percent.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other producers all agreed yesterday to maintain the production cuts until the end of next year. The meeting also indicated a possible exit from the agreement if by chance the market overheats. According to some analysts, the extension for nine months was already priced in.
Khalid al-Falih, oil minister from Saudi Arabia, said on the day that it is too early to tackle the output reductions because the world is currently entering low winter demand phase. OPEC will still look into the progress at its June meeting, he added.
Club OPEC, along with Russia, make as much as 40 percent of oil in the world and the first cooperation of Moscow with the organization has been critical on dividing the oil glut since January, even on President Vladimir Putin support on the process.