OPEC-plus decides to extend current production cuts till April this year

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies have agreed to extend most oil cuts by one month into April, offering small exemptions to Russia and Kazakhstan. They decided after the demand recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic was still fragile despite a recent oil price rally.

 

OPEC’s leader Saudi Arabia said, it would extend its voluntary oil output cut of one million barrels per day (bpd) and would decide in coming



months when to gradually phase it out.

 

The news pushed oil prices back towards their highest levels in more than a year with Brent trading up five per cent above 67 dollar a barrel as the market had expected OPEC to release more barrels.

 

Under today’s deal, Russia was allowed to raise output by 1,30,000 bpd in April and Kazakhstan by another 20,000 bpd to meet domestic needs.