
Oil holds surge as OPEC+ mulls biggest supply cut since 2020
BNN Bloomberg
Oil held a two-day surge before an OPEC+ meeting at which the alliance is considering the biggest supply cut since 2020 to revive prices.
West Texas Intermediate futures traded near US$86 a barrel after jumping almost 9 per cent over the previous two sessions. The producer group is set to discuss reducing output by as much as 2 million barrels a day, delegates said before the group meets in Vienna later Wednesday. That’s double the volume previously flagged.
A cut of that magnitude would reflect the scale of concern from the alliance about the outlook for energy demand in the face of rapidly tightening monetary policy. The U.S. benchmark recently capped its first quarterly loss in two years after giving up all the gains made following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Oil tankers are crossing the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s actions to choke traffic through the shipping route have not hurt the U.S. economy, White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett told CNBC on Tuesday, reiterating the Trump administration’s position that the war should be over in weeks, not months.

Daily oil exports from the Middle Eastern Gulf, home to top exporter Saudi Arabia and other major producers, have dropped by at least 60 per cent in the week to March 15 compared to February due to disruptions and output cuts amid the U.S.-Iran war, according to shipping data and Reuters calculations.











