Saudi Arabia slashes oil production as OPEC+ stays pat

June 5 (UPI) -- Saudi Arabia announced that it will be cutting oil production by a million barrels a day as a group of oil-producing countries agreed to maintain their current reduced production levels through end of next year.

The Middle Eastern country's Ministry of Energy made the announcement Sunday, saying in a statement that from July it will implement a voluntary cut to 9 million barrels a day from the roughly 10 million it is currently producing.

The reduction is to be only for a month, but can be extended, it said.

The announcement was made as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a few non-member states known as OPEC+ said Sunday that it was staying pat on its oil production through to the end 2024.

OPEC+, which includes both Saudi Arabia and Russia, had issued a surprise reduction of around 1.6 million barrels in April through the rest of this year that set oil prices on an upward trend.

The energy ministry explained that Saudi Arabia's cut is to reinforce the "precautionary efforts" taken by the oil cartel to maintain "the stability and balance of oil markets."

The moves shot oil prices higher on Monday, with the global Brent crude index experiencing an increase of 1% to $76.9 a barrel and the U.S. West Texas Intermediate benchmark seeing a rise of 1.2% to $72.6, CNN reported.

OPEC+ is to meet again Nov. 26 in Vienna, Austria.