Oil kicks off 2017 at $58 as OPEC deal takes effect

In 2016, Brent crude, the international benchmark for crude oil, rose by more than 50 percent — the biggest annual gain since surviving the global economic crisis of 2009.
Brent traded as low as $27.10 per barrel in January 2016, only to close the year above $56 per barrel.
As of 11am on Tuesday, January 3, Brent crude was trading at $58.10 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (or US oil) was at $55.04.
Both grades of crude had gained over one dollar and 20 cents on a barrel, from the previous day closing, as the deal reached by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) took off from January 1, 2017.
In December, 13-state OPEC had reached a deal to cut output at 32.5 million barrels per day.
The cartel got the cooperation of non-OPEC states like Russia, Bahrain, Equatorial Guinea and eight others in the first oil deal since 2001.
The current spike in prices is reported to be as a result of an output cut of 130,000 barrels by Kuwait, an OPEC member state, trimming its output to about 2.75 million a day.
The Nigerian currency, the naira, opened the year at 490 to the dollar — its 2016 closing price — and 590, 402 to the pound sterling and euro, respectively.