Crude prices surge to seven-week high as producers enforce output cuts

Crude prices widened their gains in European trade on Tuesday, advancing for the second session and hitting a seven-week high, while Brent hit a 3-week high as OPEC's members and other producers commit to the global production deal, with Russia cutting production even more than stipulated in the deal in February according to the Russian energy minister, which offset the concerns about U.S. shale production increases.
 
As of 12:45 GMT, U.S. crude rose to $54.70 a barrel from the opening of $53.95, with a session-low at $53.91, and the highest since January 3 at $54.83.
 
Brent crude rose to $57.05 a barrel from the opening of $56.11, with a session-low at $56.09, and the highest since February 3 at $57.28.
 
U.S. crude April futures closed up 0.5% yesterday, while Brent April futures added 0.7%, after OPEC opened the for more production cuts further down the line.
 
Russia's energy minister Alexander Novak said his country has cut production more than the stipulated quota in February, while committing to cut production further in April according to the deal.
 
The deal with OPEC puts a production cut quota of 300 thousand bpd on Russia, to be applied gradually across six months until June.
 
OPEC has enforced 90% of the agreed upon cuts of 1.2 million bpd, which is a record of enforecement, after Saudi Arabia cut production by the most in eight years to achieve balance quickly and underpin prices.

However, the U.S. oil rig count rose to 597 last week, the highest since October 2015, which bolstered expectations of shale production increases in February and March.