London-traded Brent benchmark grade surged over 5% to $54.3 a barrel on December 5. Oil prices are extending the sharp rally inspired by OPEC’s historic agreement made at the summit in Vienna last week.
The volume of Brent futures contracts at the Intercontinental Exchange reached 1.96 million that is equivalent to 2 billion barrels or 20 days of global oil consumption.
On November 30, the cartel of 14 large oil producers decided to scale back oil output by 1.2 million barrels a day from January 1, 2017 to a ceiling of 32.5 million barrels a day. Non-OPEC Russia stated its commitment to production cuts of 300,000 barrels a day.
That day, Brent futures responded with a gain of $4.09 or 8.82% to close at $50.47 a barrel. Brent crude showed the biggest daily rise since February 2016.
Commodity experts assume oil prices could crest to $55 a barrel amid the OPEC-driven rally.
