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Oil scales 11-month high as Saudi vows output cut
Oil prices rose on Wednesday to their highest since February 2020 after Saudi Arabia agreed to reduce output more than expected in a meeting with allied producers, while industry figures showed U.S. crude stock piles were down last week.
Brent crude rose as much as nearly 1% to $54.09 a barrel, the highest since February 26. It was at $53.87 a barrel at 10:36 a.m. after jumping 4.9% on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s 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+.
Reductions agreed to by Saudi Arabia were included in a deal to persuade other producers in the OPEC+ group to hold output steady.