Crude oil prices climbed higher on Thursday, after Saudi Arabia announced that it would extend its production cut to next month.
The move by Saudi Arabia to extend its voluntary oil output cut of 1 million barrels per day for a third month triggered hectic short-covering in the futures contract, and helped the commodity regain the ground it had lost in the previous session.
Oil prices were also supported by comments from Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak that Russia would cut oil exports by 300,000 bpd in September.
West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for September ended higher by $2.06 or about 2.6% at $81.66 a barrel, after having tumbled by about 2.3% in the previous session.
Brent crude futures ended with a gain of $1.94 or about 2.3% at $85.14 a barrel today.
Oil prices had tumbled on Wednesday despite data from the Energy Information Administration showing a massive 17.049 million barrels drop in inventory in the week ended July 28th.
Markets now await the meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, which is scheduled to happen on Friday.
