Oil prices have risen 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 continued cuts in production in an attempt to shore up flagging prices.
Opec+ 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 rose by as much as 2.4% before settling at around $77 a barrel.
Opec+ said production targets would drop by a further 1.4 million bpd from 2024.
The seven hour-long meeting on Sunday of the oil-rich nations came against a backdrop of falling energy prices.
Oil prices soared when Russia invaded Ukraine last year, but are now back at levels seen before the conflict began.
In October last year Opec+, a formulation which refers to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, agreed to cut production by two million bpd, about 2% of global demand.
In April this year the group agreed to a further cuts, which were due to last to the end of this year. But Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said that Sunday’s talks led to “the extension of the deal until the end of 2024”.
On Sunday, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said that his country’s cut of one million bpd could be extended beyond July if needed. “This is a Saudi lollipop,” he said, in what is seen as a bid to stabilise the market.
Source: BBC
In other news-Woman jailed over infant deaths acquitted
A woman once branded “Australia’s worst female serial killer” has been pardoned after new evidence suggested she did not kill her four infant children.
Kathleen Folbigg spent 20 years in prison after a jury found she killed sons Caleb and Patrick and daughters Sarah and Laura over a decade.
But a recent inquiry heard scientists believe they may have died naturally. The 55-year-old’s case has been described as one of Australia’s greatest miscarriages of justice. Ms Folbigg, who has always maintained her innocence, was jailed for 25 years in 2003 for the murders of three of the children, and the manslaughter of her first son, Caleb. Learn more
