Energy Pulse: OPEC’s surprise production cut

In the run-up to this week’s ministerial meetings of OPEC and the OPEC+ group in Vienna, it seemed most likely that they would decide simply to extend their existing agreement to restrict their output by 1.2 million barrels a day. In the event, they did quite a bit more than that, agreeing an additional 500,000 b/d cut in pursuit of their objective of “a stable and balanced oil market”. They also gave themselves the option of making another change next March. In other news this week: US oil production growth is slowing sharply, the COP 25 climate talks began in Madrid, Repsol set an ambitious goal for cutting emissions, and the greatest disaster caused by Britain's coal industry is depicted in the TV show ‘The Crown’.