Oil futures opened sharply higher Sunday evening, after Saudi Arabia agreed to deliver an additional 1 million barrel-a-day production cut next month as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies moved to extend existing production targets.
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Saudi Arabia on Sunday said it would cut oil output by 1 million barrels a day in July, and that the reduction could be extended if needed. The announcement came as OPEC+ agreed to extend current production levels through the end of 2024 at a contentious meeting in Vienna.
See: Saudis to cut oil production by 1 million barrels a day in July as OPEC+ extends output deal
OPEC+ agreed last October to cut production by 2 million barrels a day. Some OPEC+ members in early April announced further cuts totaling 1.6 million barrels a day through year-end, including 500,000 barrels a day in reductions by Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman last month warned that short sellers should "watch out" and that they would be "ouching" much like they did in early April, when the surprise cuts caused a sharp, but short-lived, spike in crude prices.
The outcome of the meeting reinforces Saudi Arabia's "uneasiness with the level of short positions in the market rather than signaling concerns around demand outlook," said Giacomo Romeo, energy equity analyst at Jefferies, in a Sunday evening note to clients.
"The open-ended part of the measure was likely put in place to discourage future short positioning," he wrote.