Oil Rises 10% as OPEC Eyes Production Cuts
Oil prices rose almost $5, or 10%, to near $48 a barrel Thursday after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said OPEC may set production cuts next week, Bloomberg reported.
Crude oil futures gained $4.46 to close at $47.98 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said.
OPEC’s previous production cuts were not enough to keep the price from falling, and a Libyan oil official said that the group may agree to “substantial” production cuts when it meets next Wednesday in Algeria, Bloomberg reported.
Oil has fallen by 25% since late October, when OPEC set a 1.5 million barrel-per-day production cut, and has dropped by about $100 since topping out at a record $145.29 Nymex closing price on July 3.
