Oil prices soared on Monday after the surprise announcement this weekend by OPEC members of a drastic cut in production since May, to push up prices.
Eight of the 23 members of the OPEC+ alliance, which brings together the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 10 other partners, decided to reduce their extraction volumes by 1.16 million barrels per day, starting with Saudi Arabia.
The announcement shook the market, which had expected a status quo. The Saudis "publicly and privately noted" until the time of the meeting "they had no intention of intervening for now"Eurasia Group analysts recalled.
The production cut announced on Sunday by Iraq, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kazakhstan and Kuwait will take effect in May and will last until the end of the year.
For its part, Russia announced on Sunday that it is extending the cut in its crude production by 500,000 barrels per day until the end of the year.
The announcements came ahead of a videoconference meeting of an alliance ministerial panel.
The group assured that it is "a precautionary measure that aims to sustain the price stability of the oil market".
But for analysts, it’s all about getting "income" additions, commented Jorge Leon, from Rystad Energy, in a note.
These cuts show that Opec+ will do everything to "defend base prices above $80 a barrel"without worrying about criticism from the United States and other big consumers worried about runaway inflation, the analyst added.
Due to the banking crisis, crude oil prices fell in March to their lowest level in a year, a level "unacceptable for members of Opec+"Ibrahim al-Ghitani, an oil market expert based in the United Arab Emirates, summarized to AFP.
After this decision, the barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in May closed up 6.3% at 84.93 dollars in London.
While the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May gained 6.27% to $80.42 in New York.
The two types of barrels rose more than 8% during the day.
