Oil prices jumped following OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia’s decision to cut production by another million barrels per day.
On Sunday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners — collectively known as OPEC+ — made no changes to its planned oil production cuts for this year, but coalition chair — and de-factor leader — Saudi Arabia announced further voluntary declines. The cuts will be implemented from July.
Global benchmark Brent futures were up 2.4% at $78.00 a barrel Monday during early Asia trade, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures rose 2.5% to $73.53 per barrel.
“The market did not widely expect the Saudi decision to cut production by 1 million barrels per day unilaterally,” President of Rapidan Energy Bob McNally told CNBC in an e-mail following the decision.
“It once again demonstrated that Saudi Arabia is willing to act unilaterally to stabilize oil prices,” McNally said, citing the example of January 2021 when the oil titan unilaterally cut by production by 1 million barrels per day.
On April 3, several producers of the oil cartel OPEC+ revealed a combined 1.66 million barrels per day of production declines until the end of this year.
—CNBC’s Ruxandra Iordache contributed to this report.