On Wednesday 5th October, OPEC+, at its 45th Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting held in Vienna, agreed to cut daily oil production by 2 million barrels per day. As it was the first in-person ministerial meeting for OPEC+ since March 2020, which itself signaled that a major announcement was looming, it was fitting that the group announced the biggest oil production cut since the start of the Covid pandemic. The size of the cut, equivalent to around 2% of global daily oil production, was significantly larger than the expected figure of 1 million bpd. However, according to Reuters, as several OPEC+ member states fell short of their target production levels in August, the real cut is estimated to be less than 1 million barrels per day. Given the magnitude of this step, it is worth looking into the role the group plays in the global oil market and how this latest production cut might affect prices
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures are up sharply late Thursday and for the week after OPEC and its allies (OPEC+) agreed to tighten global supply with a deal to cut production targets by 2 million barrels per day / (bpd), the largest reduction since 2020