Haider Al-Abadi, the Prime Minister of Iraq was the latest high-profile personality after Russian energy minister Alexander Novak, and Russian president Vladimir Putin to improve the odds of OPEC reaching an agreement on November 30th. After a surprise framework for a deal in September, the hope faded as the OPEC produced almost a million barrels of oil per day more than the targeted levels, countries complained to OPEC secretariat over a proper recording of levels of production and Iraq openly opposed to any production cut.

While the members of the OPEC would still have to deal with the issue of the levels of production at the Vienna meeting, the Prime Minister has provided assurance that the country is ready to cut some of its production. The Prime Minister said that the country should shoulder responsibility for some of the planned reductions.

With such comments coming from the Prime Minister, a major hurdle to the deal gets removed and it is now more likely that a deal would be reached. Nevertheless, it is important to see the actual deal happening, as the specifics still don’t match the current production statistics. Oil price received a major boost from those comments. WTI is currently trading at $48 per barrel and Brent at $49 per barrel.