OPEC Agrees to Push Prices Higher.

(From The Moscow Times)

Dismissing Russia's call for lower oil prices, OPEC members on Wednesday agreed to reduce their collective crude output by 1 million barrels per day from Thursday, putting further pressure on a commodity already trading at 13-year highs.

"We made the decision to apply the Algiers decision [that we made in February]," news agencies quoted Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil as saying in Vienna. "We're going to meet again in June ... to review the market."

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has had difficulty acting in unison in the past as members found ways to circumvent their quotas, but this time Saudi Arabia, the world's top exporter, appears determined to curtail production.

Analysts said Wednesday the key issue now is whether the Saudis will, for the first time in history, cut exports even if other OPEC members do not. Russia and five other non-OPEC oil exporting nations that attended the meeting refused to endorse the cartel's decision.

Although global No. 2 oil exporter Russia called for easing prices in order to dampen global inflation risks, OPEC's decision to cut appears to be already factored into the government's fiscal strategy. Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref last week raised his economic ...