OPEC+ is responding to the oil market’s collapse with an urgency never seen before. The alliance’s program of production cutbacks this month is well on the way to trimming 9.7 million barrels of daily crude output – roughly 10% of global supplies, according to tanker-tracking data, interviews with physical crude traders and refiners, and assessments by consultants.
And that’s just in the first two weeks of the agreement. Bullish oil investors have also bet on a more optimistic market as Saudi Arabia said it would cut an extra 1 million barrels a day in June, with the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait also contributing more than their targets.
Meanwhile, over in the largest oil producer in the world the US, data from Baker Hughes on Friday showed that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil dropped by 34 to 258 this week. That decline represents a nearly 60% fall in active rigs since a recent peak count back in March, which may be the biggest such drop ever recorded.