Oil up on OPEC deal

Crude oil prices moved higher on Friday, after the world’s major oil producers agreed to extend production cuts until the end of 2018.

The U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude January contract was up 46 cents or about 0.80% at $57.84 a barrel by 07:05 a.m. ET (11:05 GMT).

Elsewhere, Brent oil for February delivery on the ICE Futures Exchange in London was up 62 cents or about 0.99% at $63.25 a barrel.

Prices increased after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC members led by Russia followed market expectations and agreed on Thursday to extend their supply cuts from March 2018 through to the end of next year.

In November last year, OPEC and 11 other non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, agreed to cut output by about 1.8 million barrels per day between January 1 and June 30.

The agreement was extended in May of this year for a period of nine months until March 2018 in a bid to reduce global oil inventories and support oil prices.

Oil has risen around 17% since the last time producers gathered for an official meeting back in late May with major oil producers not scheduled for another round of negotiations until June.

Saudi energy minister Khalid al-Falih said inventories were expected to decline to the desired targets in the second half of 2018, although he admitted that production from other areas, such as U.S. shale output, remained an unknown.

Elsewhere, gasoline futures were up 0.81% at $1.747 a gallon, while natural gas futures advanced 2.41% to $3.098 per million British thermal units.