Oil prices rise

Oil prices rose on Friday, heading for a fifth week of gains, after major producers agreed to continue to restrain production to cope with coronavirus-hit demand but the compromise fell short of expectations.

Brent was up 19 cents, or 0.4%, at $48.89 a barrel by 0102 GMT after gaining around 1% on Thursday. West Texas Intermediate had risen 18 cents, or 0.4% at $45.82 a barrel.

OPEC and Russia on Thursday agreed to ease deep oil output cuts from January by 500,000 barrels per day, failing to come to a compromise on a broader policy for the rest of next year.

“They came up with the ultimate compromise,” said Stephen Innes, chief market strategist at Axi.

OPEC+ will meet once a month to review conditions and monthly increases will not be greater than 500,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The increase means the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia, a group known as OPEC+, are set to reduce production by 7.2 million bpd, or 7% of global demand from January, compared with current cuts of 7.7 million bpd.

OPEC+ was expected to continue existing cuts until at least March, after backing down from plans to raise output by 2 million bpd.