Oil price has risen to near two year highs Tuesday after it emerged that Oman and Kuwait have cut production in compliance with the agreement of OPEC in December last year.
Brent, the most international traded crude is steady at $58.10 while US crude is at $54.91.
January 1 marked the official start of the deal agreed by OPEC and non-OPEC members to reduce output by almost 1.8mill barrels per day. Oil has advanced after the biggest annual gain since 2009.
OPEC member Kuwait has cut output by 130,000 barrels a day to about 2.75 million a day to comply with OPEC cuts, Al-Anba newspaper reported, citing Kuwait Oil Co.
Iraq will start implementing cuts by reducing heavy and medium grades, the nation’s oil minister Jabbar al-Luaibi told Kuwaiti daily al-Jarida.
However, Libya, one of two OPEC member countries exempt from cuts, increased its production to 685,000 barrels per day (bpd) as of Sunday, up from around 600,000 a day in December, according to an official from the National Oil Corporation (NOC)
Reports say total OPEC crude production in December “largely unchanged” m/m at ~34.5m b/d, according to e-mailed Jan. 2 report from JBC Energy.
On the back of improved price drillers in the U.S. increased the rig count by two to 525 last week, the highest level since January 2016, according to Baker Hughes.
