Economic News
The announcement of a significant production cut by Saudi Arabia boosted oil prices at the beginning of the week. On Monday morning, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent for delivery in August cost 77.03 US dollars.
The Khurais oil field near the Saudi capital Riyadh. Image: EPA
That was 90 cents more than on Friday. The price of a barrel of American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) grade for delivery in July rose 92 cents to $72.66. During the night, the prices had risen even more significantly at times.
After a turbulent OPEC meeting, the oil giant Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday a unilateral cut in its production by one million barrels a day, initially for July. The country actually leads the twenty or so states of the OPEC+ oil cartel together with Russia.
In contrast to Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries, the United Arab Emirates could also increase their production slightly in the coming year.
The start of the meeting was delayed by several hours because there are said to have been discussions about the funding quotas for African OPEC members. The OPEC countries had already throttled their production last year. In April, some OPEC countries, including Saudi Arabia, then extended the cuts to the surprise of many experts. The background to this is that oil prices are trending downwards due to the weakening global economy. (sda/awp/dpa)