Oil prices jump as OPEC on course to extend output cuts

Vienna: Oil prices jumped Monday as OPEC nations moved towards extending daily oil output caps that help the price of crude rise strongly this year.
Ministers from the 14-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) were meeting in Vienna on Monday to discuss output, before gathering a day later for OPEC+ — which is a grouping of 24 oil-producing countries that includes Russia and accounts for almost half of global crude.
“Everyone supported the proposition to extend for nine months the limits agreed in December,” Novak said after a gathering of oil ministers and before the cartel’s main meeting later Monday.
OPEC and its oil-producer allies had decided in December to trim daily crude output by 1.2 million barrels after prices tanked at the end of last year on fears of slower global growth.
This helped crude prices jump by a third in the first quarter of the year, boosting revenue for oil producing nations, but the deal ran only through to the end of June.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia grabbed the headlines on Saturday with an agreement to extend the deal, which has helped soak up extra supplies on the market.