Oil times rose on Friday, on the way for tough weekly gains largely attributed to Saudi Arabia’s decision to slow unilateral crude production.
West Texas Raw Intermediate for Delivery in February CL.1,
CLG21,
rose 66 cents, or 1.3%, to $ 51.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. March Brent crude BRNH21,
the global benchmark, up 80 cents, or 1.5%, at $ 55.18 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe. Both criteria rose more than 6% for the week.
Saudi Arabia on Tuesday took traders off guard by announcing it would cut production by 1 million barrels per day in February and March. The move came after a lengthy meeting of OPEC + – made up of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and a Russian-led alliance of non-OPEC representatives – which saw the group largely agree to stick to the loopholes production, while allowing Russia and Kazakhstan to boost production by 75,000 barrels per day.
“It is clear that Saudi Arabia is fully committed to supporting oil prices through these turbulent months and has no desire to fall in other prices in pursuit of short – term benefits,” said Craig Erlam. Oanda’s senior market analyst, in a note.
At the same time, attention was paid to Russia’s decision “not to lose market share, meaning that the two big players have got what they want out of the deal,” ”Said Erlam. “It’s not a long-term solution but it’s a good plaster to see the organization through this hard wave – and the ultimate hope – of COVID-19. ”
The U.S. saw at least 4,111 deaths on Thursday from COVID-19, the highest number in a single day since the uprising began, according to a New York Times fan, and they were counting a record of co. -at least 280,028 new cases, also a record. In the past week, the U.S. has averaged 237,607 cases per day, after experts warned that diseases could accelerate if Americans traveled in large numbers during the holiday season since recently