Brent crude LCOc1, the international benchmark for oil prices, was trading at $55.42 per barrel at 0441 GMT, down 7 cents from its last close. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures CLc1 fell 11 cents to $53.11 a barrel.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said OPEC’s 13 nations and 11 producers outside the cartel had made collective cuts totaling 1.5 million barrels a day since agreements were struck in late November and early December. Oil prices have risen nearly 20% since those deals were made, despite widespread skepticism over whether OPEC and other producers would follow through.

International benchmark Brent crude prices were up 68 cents at $54.84 a barrel at 0950 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were trading up 63 cents at $52 a barrel.

Cnooc said it plans to lift capital spending to between Rmb60bn and RMB70bn this year, from budgeted capex of Rmb50.3bn in 2016. It intends to produce between 450m and 460m barrels of oil equivalent this year, compared with an estimated 476m last year.

Brent for March settlement rose 27 cents to $55.72 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract fell 56 cents, or 1 percent, to $55.45 a barrel on Friday. Prices slid 2.9 percent last week, the biggest drop since November. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $2.32 to March WTI.

OPEC Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo forecast on Monday that stability would return to oil markets this year while price hawk Venezuela said it hoped its crude basket would rise to $70 in coming months.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was down 10 cents a barrel at $55.35 by 0915 GMT (04:15 a.m. ET) and U.S. light crude CLc1 fell 10 cents to $52.27.

Global oil prices will witness "much more volatility" in 2017 even though markets may rebalance in the first half of the year if output cuts pledged by producers are implemented.

The world could run short of oil by 2020 due to the recent sharp global downturn in upstream investment, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said Thursday.

For every one dollar reduction in the price of oil, Russia suffers a staggering two billion dollar loss in its revenue. On top of the economic sanctions slapped on Russia following the annexation of Crimea, one may consider the record Russian oil production of 11.247 mbpd nothing short of a miracle.