Oil Surges as OPEC+ Pledges to Clear Pandemic-Driven Surplus

  • OPEC+ stressed importance of accelerating market re-balancing
  • In the U.S., oil inventories dropped for second straight week
Photographer: Oliver Bunic/Bloomberg
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Oil climbed to the highest in more than a year in New York as OPEC and its allies pledged to continue whittling down global inventories.

Futures in New York surged 1.7% to near $56 a barrel on Wednesday. A committee of OPEC+ ministers said the group will keep pushing to quickly clear the oil surplus left by the pandemic-induced demand slump. The alliance’s effort appears to be working despite a still tenuous recovery in demand: Chinese stockpiles are at the lowest in almost a year and a U.S. government report on Wednesday showed crude stockpiles fell nearly 1 million barrels.