Furthermore, oil found support from diminishing global supply, which declined by 1.4 million barrels per day to 99.7 million barrels in January on plummeting exports out of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, according to the International Energy Agency.
“The cartel has gone above the call of duty in curbing output as part of a new supply-cut pact which took effect in January,” Stephen Brennock, analyst at brokerage PVM, told the WSJ.
OPEC and its allies have been cutting down supply to meet an agreement made last year. The IEA calculated that OPEC reduced output by 930,000 barrels per day in January.
“We expect total OPEC production to fall to 30.31 million barrels a day in Q1 ’19, sharply down from 31.94 mb/d in Q4 ’18,” analysts at Energy Aspects said in a report Wednesday. “The new OPEC+ deal, reinforced by Saudi Arabia’s overcompliance and combined with significant production declines in Venezuela and Libya (until March), will significantly lower production.”
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