By Mahmoud Gamal

Mubasher: Oil prices were flat in Thursday's early trade after OPEC members surprisingly decided to curb their output.

By this initial agreement, the members would finalize in the next formal meeting on 30 November in Vienna all details on their oil cut compromise from 33 million barrels a day to 700,000 barrels.

By 4:00am GMT, Brent crude futures for November delivery fell 7 cents, or 0.16%, to $49.17 a barrel.

Meanwhile, US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 8 cents, or 0.17%, to $47.13 per barrel.

The latest OPEC agreement could finally put an end to "the war of production", said commodity analyst Ahmed Karm.

Brent crude futures are expected to hold above $55-60 per barrel on this cut deal over the coming months, the analyst added.

According to data by the US Energy Information Administration Wednesday, US oil stocks went down by 1.88 million barrels during the week ended 23 September, compared to a decline of 6.2 million barrels a week earlier and against an expected increase of 2.99 million barrels.