OIL PRICES: ABOVE $56

WSJ - Oil prices surged by more than 4% on Monday after more oil-producing nations agreed to slash production, a move aimed at pushing the oversupplied oil market into a rebalance, or even a deficit, to prop up a crude market that had been stuck in a two-year slump.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose 4.27% to $56.67 a barrel on London's ICE Futures exchange. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate futures were trading up 4.80% at $53.95 a barrel.

Energy stocks also soared on the news. In London, Royal Dutch Shell PLC was up 3.3% while in Milan, Eni SpA traded 3.16% higher. In Hong Kong, PetroChina was up 2.4% and Cnooc was up 1.8%.

Over the weekend, a group of heavyweight producers outside of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, including Russia, agreed to scale back their output by 558,000 barrels a day. The move would come on top of the cut of 1.2 million barrels a day agreed to by OPEC in late November. The total reduction represents almost 2% of the global supply.

The deal is viewed as a feather in the cap for Saudi Arabia the oil cartel's de facto leader and the world's largest crude producer.

"It has been the long-term goal of Saudi Arabia to get the involvement of Russia and this has been a major geopolitical development and I think it is historic," said Olivier Jakob an analyst from the Switzerland-based consultancy Petromatrix.

"Russia has been very linked to Iran and with this latest development it is also reaching out a little bit to the wider gulf area," said Mr. Jakob.

The non-OPEC cuts, if carried out as described over the first half of 2017, would represent an unprecedented level of cooperation among oil-producing countries that have been groping for ways to lift oil prices out of a two-year funk.

"This is truly a historic event," Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said. "It is the first time that so many oil-producing countries from different parts of the world have gathered in one room to accomplish what we have done."

The bulk of the cuts—300,000 barrels a day—have been pledged by Russia, which produces more crude oil than any other country. Other output reductions are promised by 10 other countries, including Oman, Azerbaijan and Sudan.

Bernstein Research noted that some of the non-OPEC supply cuts would come from natural decline but that most would come from self-imposed cuts.

The market got an extra boost of confidence on reports that Saudi Arabia indicated that, if necessary, the kingdom may be willing to take a deeper cut than the 486,000-barrel cut it had agreed in the November meeting.

"The latest development is buoying optimism in the market. It shows that the OPEC has overcome a significant hurdle," said Vivek Dhar, a commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

However, he also warned that compliance by the agreed parties remains a glaring downside risk, given these oil producers haven't always been forthcoming about their production levels, despite their pledges to rein in output.

The production-cut deal will take effect Jan. 1, and the oil producers will reconvene in six month to assess the deal.

"At this stage, the safe assumption is that they will be [compliant], especially, in the first few months," said Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

Another concern is how fast the U.S. shale producers will ramp up their production in a bid to capture the higher prices.

"Last week the U.S. oil rig count rose by 21 rigs to 498 which was the biggest one week gain since July 2015", noted SEB Markets in a recent report.

"Our main concern is that market has become comfortably numb in relation to rising rig counts," said Bjarne Schieldrop, chief commodities analyst at SEB Markets.

"We won't really see any physical supply response from the added rigs before the second half of 2017. I think this is setting in motion a new boom and bust cycle with a big rise in oil rigs, "said Mr. Schieldrop.

Higher oil prices are also ramping up inflation expectations, pushing yields on government bonds higher early Monday, with the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury last at 2.426% after a sharp rise on Friday to 2.469%. The yield on a similar bond in Japan reached its highest level since mid-February, last at 0.070% compared with 0.056% Friday. Yields rise as prices fall.

The weekend's deal "clearly is going to secure inflationary pressures" going into the first quarter of 2017, said Stuart Ive, a private client manager at OM Financial Ltd. in New Zealand.

Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock—the benchmark gasoline contract—fell 4.97% to $3.56 a gallon. ICE gasoil changed hands at $496 a metric ton, up $18.25 from the previous settlement.

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Earlier:  

OIL PRICES: ABOVE $54 ANEW

OIL PRICES: ABOVE $53 AGAIN 

OIL PRICES: STILL ABOVE $54 

OIL PRICES: $43 - $52 

STATOIL SEES $60