Oil prices continued to climb on Wednesday, reaching the highest levels since the end of February 2020, the day after Saudi Arabia announced a significant cut in its black gold production while the rest of Opep+ will only increase theirs marginally in the coming months.

North Sea Brent crude oil for March delivery rose 1.49% or 80 cents from Tuesday's close to $54.30. In London in the morning, he had received 54.63 dollars, a price most seen since February 26, 2020

For its part, the US barrel of WTI rose 1.40% or 70 cents to $50.63, the highest since the end of February.

“Oil prices are rebounding after the unexpected results of the Ocep+ meeting,” observed Carlo Alberto De Casa, an analyst at Activtrades.

After two days of talks, members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and their partners finally reached a compromise on Tuesday, allowing only Russia and Kazakhstan to slightly increase their production of black gold during the first quarter.

The volume voluntarily withdrawn from the market since spring 2020 by this Opep+ alliance will increase from 7.2 million barrels per day (mbd) in January to 7.125 mbd in February and 7.05 mbd in March, the cartel announced at the conclusion of their first ministerial summit of 2021.

But “the real surprise was Saudi Arabia's announcement of a voluntary reduction of one million barrels per day that will be implemented over the next two months,” added the Activtrades analyst, enough to make the markets “enthusiastic.”

“Rather than being taken for what it is — a sign of weakening demand — the Saudi surprise caused oil prices to soar,” said Stephen Brennock of PVM.

The prices of the two benchmark contracts had already appreciated by almost 5% on Tuesday.

The increase was also fuelled by data released by the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA) on Wednesday, which shows that U.S. commercial crude stocks fell by 8 million barrels (MB) in the last week of 2020, more than analysts expected.