Saudi Arabia begins curtailing daily output

Saudi Aramco has started reducing production earlier this week ahead of the May 1 deadline when new OPEC+ output targets kick in, according to a Saudi industry official familiar with the matter.

Aramco started to reduce production from about 12 million barrels a day to achieve the new level of 8.5 million barrels a day, the same person said, asking not to be named discussing non-public information, Bloomberg reported.

Aramco is likely to be pumping at the 8.5 million barrels a day target slightly ahead of the May 1 target, the person added.

Aramco didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

Oil prices have plunged since the last two weeks due to ongoing war between Opec+ and Russia and also due to Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic which has hurt world economies since December 2019.