Oil Prices Rose on OPEC Increased Output Cut Scale

Oil prices climbed 50 cents to $59 a barrel on Friday after OPEC unexpectedly increased the scale of its first output cut in over two years to 1.2 million barrels per day.

OPEC agreed to slash real production by about 4.3 percent from September, a bigger cut than the 1 million bpd that had been discussed and its deepest cut since January 2002.

U.S. light, sweet crude soared as high as $59.40 a barrel after the deeper curbs emerged, but later stood only 48 cents higher at $58.98 a barrelin the NYMEX.

London Brent crude rose 39 cents to $61.26 a barrel on the ICE Futures.