Members of the enlarged group of oil-exporting countries, OPEC+, have agreed to limit production by 100,000 barrels per day from October.
The OPEC+ countries hope in this way to stabilise international markets after weaker demand and the corona lockdowns in China, among other things, recently caused oil prices to fall sharply.
In August, OPEC+ agreed to scale up its production, but that decision is now being reversed.
The decision to ramp up production came last month in response to pleas from US President Joe Biden. In July, Biden travelled to Saudi Arabia to meet, among others, the controversial Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.
For Western countries that are oil-dependent and, moreover, struggling with inflation, the production cutback is bad news. The oil price is now more than US$95 a barrel, and Europe could face an energy shortage this winter.
Brent oil, the leading price benchmark for oil from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, traded about 3.5 percent higher on Monday afternoon in London, ending at US$96.60. Current production is already well below target, so it is expected that none of the oil-producing countries will have to make real production cuts. The impact will be purely psychological, said a Bloomberg analyst.
