Crude Jumps 10 Percent
Crude oil jumped 10 percent Thursday after the Saudi Arabian oil minister said he had delivered the output cuts promised to OPEC, a sign that world supplies are smaller than traders had estimated.
Crude closed $4.46 higher at $47.98 a barrel. Oil is up 18 percent so far this week, the largest one-week gain since June 1998, when OPEC slashed output by more than 3.1 million barrels a day.
The Saudi minister, said in an interview that the kingdom pumped 8.493 million barrels of oil a day in November, close to its OPEC production quota of 8.477 million barrels a day. That’s 287,000 barrels a day less than recently estimated by the International Energy Agency.
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his country, the second-biggest oil producer, may join OPEC and also reduce output to support prices.
Crude closed $4.46 higher at $47.98 a barrel. Oil is up 18 percent so far this week, the largest one-week gain since June 1998, when OPEC slashed output by more than 3.1 million barrels a day.
The Saudi minister, said in an interview that the kingdom pumped 8.493 million barrels of oil a day in November, close to its OPEC production quota of 8.477 million barrels a day. That’s 287,000 barrels a day less than recently estimated by the International Energy Agency.
Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said his country, the second-biggest oil producer, may join OPEC and also reduce output to support prices.
