Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries (OPEC) yesterday reached an agreement on reduction of petroleum production for the first time after eight years, which caused a sudden increase in petroleum prices.
OPEC will reduce the production by 1.2 million barrels to 32.5 million barrels per day, stated two delegates at the ministerial meeting of OPEC in Vienna.
After several weeks of intense negotiations, three major producers – Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran – solved their disputes regarding the reduction of petroleum production.
It seems like Saudi Arabia accepted that Iran, as a special exception, can increase production to 3.9 barrels per day. The agreement should also include additional reduction of around 600.000 barrels per day among countries which are not in OPEC.
This agreement will help the OPEC member countries which are in major financial trouble due to the fall in prices of petroleum in the past two years, such as Venezuela and Libya, but also the U.S. producers who stopped their production of petroleum from schist, which is unprofitable at low prices.
Price of U.S. petroleum increased by 6.9 percent to 48.3 USD per barrel, while the Brent petroleum is now 7.4 percent more expensive and costs 49.8 USD per barrel.
(Source: novovrijeme.ba)