Oil soars as OPEC, allies agree on a higher-than-expected cut

Oil prices rose on Friday after OPEC producers and allies reached a deal, in their meeting in Vienna today, to reduce output by 1.2 million barrels per day (mbd), higher than 1 mbd that was earlier expected.

By 09:50 pm Riyadh local time, Brent Crude futures were up 4.21 percent to $62.59 a barrel, while WTI crude futures were up by 3.65 percent to $53.37 a barrel.

"The 5th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting, following deliberations on the immediate oil market prospects and in view of a growing imbalance between global oil supply and demand in 2019, hereby decided to adjust the overall production by 1.2 mbd, effective as of January 2019 for an initial period of six months," noted a statement from OPEC.