Oil futures rose on Monday after Saudi Arabia announced it would voluntarily reduce crude output by an additional 1 million barrels per day (mb/d)🎉, beginning in July. 

The world’s top producer made the announcement as members of the OPEC+ cartel, of which it is a member, agreed not to change its planned production cuts of 3.66 mb/d for this year. However, the group added it will increase those by an additional 1.4 mb/d from January through December  2024, limiting combined output to 40.46 mb/d. 

The cartel made its surprise cut in April in an effort to boost oil prices, which had slumped to below $70 a barrel (bbl) after soaring to $12ඣ0 bbl following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

In explaining the decision to make even deeper cuts𒁏 now, Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prinཧce Abdulaziz said his country “wanted to ice the cake,” and “we don’t want people to try to predict what we do.” He added that the market “needs stabilization.”

After an initial jump, crude prices pared their gains, and shares of oil producers turned negative.