Singapore — Oil prices rose on Wednesday as producer club Opec said it had cut supply deeply in January and as US sanctions hit Venezuela’s oil exports. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $53.70 a barrel at 3.44am GMT, up 60c, or 1.1%, from their last close. International Brent crude futures were up 1.1%, or 69c, at $63.11 a barrel. Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage Oanda in Singapore, said oil prices were boosted after “Saudi Arabia announced it was cutting daily production and exports by a further 500,000 barrels a day on top of its agreed Opec quota cut”. Opec, which Saudi Arabia de-facto leads as the world’s top crude oil exporter, said on Tuesday that it had cut its output by almost 800,000 barrels a day in January to 30.81 million barrels a day. Supply issues in Opec-member Venezuela are also bolstering oil prices as the South American country suffers a political and economic crisis, with Washington introducing petroleum export ...
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