OPEC agrees further cuts to oil production
CGTN
Europe;
The meeting was led by Russia, a non-member (Credit: Reuters/ Leonhard Foeger)

The meeting was led by Russia, a non-member (Credit: Reuters/ Leonhard Foeger)

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to increase cuts to oil production when the member nations met in Vienna on 5 December. 

The group has already been limiting the oil supply by 1.2 million barrels a day. However, this agreement was expected to expire in March.

The cut in production has now been extended and increased by half a million barrels a day. 

This will remove 1.7 million barrels from the market every day until the first three months of 2020. This is a shorter period than that suggested by some OPEC members before Thursday's meeting. 

The group has been voluntarily limiting the supply of oil since 2017 to fight against overproduction, specifically from the US – one of the world's leading oil producers and not a member of OPEC. 

However, the US already caused the global supply of oil to decline when it imposed sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, two current OPEC members.

US President Donald Trump has previously been critical of OPEC, but has not commented on the organization in the past couple of months. 

This may change when oil prices increase because of these cuts during the November 2020 US presidential elections. 

Source(s): Reuters