Oil price jumped after OPEC agreed its first oil output cuts since 2008

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has agreed its first oil output cuts since 2008, an OPEC source told Reuters on Wednesday.

The source said the agreement was in line with an accord reached in Algiers in September. OPEC member Algeria was proposing to set a new production ceiling at 32.5 million barrels per day, down from current levels of 33.6 million.

Oil jumped 7.6 percent to $49.90 a barrel in London at 1:23 p.m. local time.

After weeks of often tense negotiations, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ three biggest producers — Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran — resolved differences over sharing the burden of cuts to rein in supply for the first time since 2008. Notably, it appears the Saudis accepted that Iran, as a special case, can raise production to about 3.9 million barrels a day. The agreement is also likely to include a reduction of about 600,000 barrels a day by non-OPEC countries.

Reuters/Bloomberg