The global oil benchmarks, the North Sea Brent (Brent) and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) have reached the highest level in more than 16 months as non-OPEC countries officially reached a production cut agreement over the weekend, where more countries joined in than originally expected. It was originally assumed that only 5 countries among the 14 invited would join the non-OPEC meeting in Vienna but final joiners were double of that number. Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bolivia, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Sudan and South Sudan; all either joined or committed to the cuts. The oil market cheered the participation by so many countries more than the production cut numbers, which fell short of anticipated 0.6 million barrels per day. The non-OPEC producers have agreed to cut together 558,000 barrels per day.

This is a historic agreement, especially among the n-OPEC countries. Russia, which 15 years ago failed to deliver on promises to cut in tandem with OPEC, is expected to perform real output reductions this time. Saudi Arabia’s energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said that, "This agreement cements and prepares us for long-term cooperation”.

Russia, which produced 11.247 million barrels per day, will see production decline to 10.947 million barrels per day over the next six months. WTI is currently trading at $54 per barrel and Brent is trading at $56.7 per barrel.