Fears grow over oil price as Opec+ agrees to cut output

The Opec oil cartel and its allies have agreed to a bigger than expected cut in oil production targets despite significant pressure from the US. The Opec+ group of oil-producing nations signed up to a cut in output of 2m barrels a day, surpassing predictions earlier in the week of cuts of 1m to 1.5m barrels, squeezing supplies in a tight market. Founded in 1960, the cartel of the world's biggest oil producers emerged as a political and economic force with the 1973-74 US oil embargo, which caused oil prices to spike. In response to the 2014-16 oil price slump, Opec partnered with Russia in December 2016 to agree a cut in production of 1.8m barrels a day. Between them these nations supply 55 percent of oil production and hold 90 percent of the planet's oil reserves. Although oil prices have fallen from the highs of about $130 a barrel seen in the summer, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine tightened supplies, motorists in the UK and the US have still experienced high prices at the pump, exacerbating the cost of living crisis. The invasion of Ukraine has upended world oil markets, with western nations shunning Russian oil and exporters in Russia instead increasingly shipping to India and China. If oil prices rise sharply, the White House could opt to release additional barrels from the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or curb domestic exports of refined products, to calm prices.