Mubasher: Oil futures settled higher on Thursday on the back of OPEC-led supply cuts and the US sanctions against Venezuela and Iran

April Nymex WTI gained $0.44, or 0.8%, to close at $56.66 per barrel.

Crude markets had support from the supply-cutting pact inked by OPEC and its partners, including Russia, an alliance known as OPEC+, under which supply was reduced by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in an attempt to prevent a market glut.

“In our view, OPEC’s strategy is to rebalance the market as quickly as possible and exit the cuts by the end of June in order to grow production alongside shale producers in the second half of this year,” Goldman Sachs said.