Oil remains bid in Asia on Venezuela sanctions and OPEC output cut

Oil benchmarks are trading in the green at press time on OPEC's output cuts and supply issues in Venezuela. 

Brent oil jumped to an 8-day high of $63.32 per barrel yesterday after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said that it had cut its output by almost 800,000 barrels per day in January to 30.81 million barrels per day. 

Saudi Arabia, the de-facto leader of OPEC, announced that it had reduced its output by a further 500,000 barrels per day on top of the agreed output cut under the OPEC deal. 

Further, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that Venezuelan output slipped to 1.22 million barrels per day. 

Looking forward, oil could continue to rise, courtesy of falling OPEC and Venezuelan supplies. The bullish momentum, however, may weaken if the US data, due today, shows a big rise in oil inventories. 

As of writing, Brent is trading at $63.06 per barrel, representing a 1 percent gain on the day. WTI is also better bid at $53.65 per barrel.