By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- Crude oil prices surged on Tuesday after Russia reportedly dropped its push for a scheduled increase in production from February in concert with other big exporters.
Newswires reported that Russia's deputy prime minister Alexander Novak had agreed to 'roll over' the current level of production for another month, in view of an expected shortfall in demand from key economies due to the resurgence of the Covid-19 virus and spreading lockdown measures to contain it.
The meeting of the so-called "OPEC+" bloc had been deadlocked on Monday as Russia pressed for the scheduled 500,000 barrel-a-day increase foreseen by the bloc's December agreement. However, it met stiff opposition from Saudi Arabia, which was in turn supported by the two other big producers in OPEC, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.
By 9:15 AM ET (1415 GMT), U.S. crude futures were up 2.4% at $48.77 a barrel, while the international benchmark Brent futures contract was up 2.2% at $52.19 a barrel.
The signs of stricter lockdown measures in Europe had been coming in thick and fast over the preceding 24 hours. On Monday, the U.K. said England would return to a full lockdown for six weeks, while German federal and state governments agreed to extend the current restrictions in Europe's largest economy for another three weeks to January 31st.