CAIRO (voa) – Oil prices have not received the expected boost from the decision by the OPEC oil cartel to cut production by 1.5 million barrels a day for the next six months.
The cartel announced the move Friday in Cairo after winning a pledge from five non-OPEC countries to cut production by a total of 462,500 barrels daily.
However, the price for a barrel of Brent (North Sea) crude fell slightly and remained at about $20 a barrel, amid concern the non-OPEC nations may not follow through on their pledge. Also, analysts said the production cuts were factored into the market.
OPEC is hoping that production cuts will boost prices to between $22 and $28 a barrel.
OPEC said in November it would cut production, but it waited until non-OPEC producers agreed to cut their output by about 500,000 barrels a day.
