OPEC clinched a deal to curtail oil supply, 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, Bloomberg News reports.
OPEC will reduce production by 1.2 million barrels a day to 32.5 million a day, a delegate said Wednesday in Vienna, asking not to be identified as the decision isn’t yet public. 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.