Oil market receives boost as OPEC+ agree to gradual output hike

Oil market receives boost as OPEC+ agree to gradual output hike

After five days of difficult talks that exposed new rifts between core members, OPEC+ agreed to gently ease output cuts next year. The deal appeared to satisfy the oil market and most of the cartel's members, but strained the group's unity and set up testing times ahead.

Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, de facto leader of the group alongside his Russian counterpart, was frank that the deal was hard-won.

"It's very excruciating, it's very tiring,“ Prince Abdulaziz told reporters after the meeting on Thursday. "If you want to work with 23 countries, you have to be very congenial to the idea of flexibility.“

For all his talk of fatigue, the prince had just signed up to an even more grueling schedule of meetings between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, which will define the trajectory of crude prices for months to come.

The cartel couldn't agree on what had been widely expected before this week: a full three-month delay to the scheduled January output increase. Instead ministers resolved to add 500,000 barrels a day of production to the market next month, then hold monthly meetings to decide on subsequent moves.

The accord could add a maximum of 2 million