Tuesday, September 9, 2008

OPEC Cuts Oil Production by 520,000 Barrels a Day

OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna early Wednesday agreed to cut production to 28.8 million barrels a day in the next 40 days, a reduction of about 520,000 barrels a day, OPEC's President and Algerian Energy Minister Chakib Khelil announced.

The move was seen as an effort to cut overproduction in a market that has seen falling prices in crude oil.

Brent crude was down $4.14 to $99.30 a barrel, while U.S. crude lost $3.08 to $103.26. The prices have sunk from a record of more than $147 a barrel last July. Brent crude is one of the most important benchmark crude oils. Two-thirds of the world's internationally traded crude oil supplies are priced relative to it. The benchmark oil is a combination of crude oil from 15 different oil fields in the Brent and Ninian areas of the North Sea.

In other news, the oil exporting cartel announced that Indonesia had suspended its OPEC membership.

"The conference regretfully accepted the wish of Indonesia to suspend its full membership in the organisation and recorded its hope the country would be in a position to rejoin the organization in the not too distant future," OPEC said in a statement.

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