OPEC agrees to first oil production cut since 2008

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed Wednesday to cut oil production in a bid to boost prices, the first such deal since 2008.

Delegates to the cabal agreed to reduce output by 3.7 percent to 32.5 million barrels per day, Bloomberg reported, citing two delegates who wished to remain anonymous as the deal had not been publicly announced.

{mosads}The production deal could cause meaningful increases to oil prices, which crashed globally starting in 2014 due to a worldwide supply glut and have only increased modestly since then.

Crude oil on the Brent benchmark rose 8 percent to $50.07 a barrel in trading early Wednesday afternoon in Europe after the details of the deal leaked.

After tense negotiations in Vienna, Austria, which at times showed little hope of producing a deal, Saudi Arabia agreed to take on a bigger portion of the production cuts than it had hoped for, while allowing Iran to increase its output to the levels before western nations imposed sanctions on it, according to Bloomberg.

Before the economic collapse and price drops, OPEC cut production more frequently. Since then, it has been difficult for countries to agree on such tough decisions.

The new deal is likely to have worldwide consequences. It could help major companies that operate in the U.S. that slashed thousands of jobs due to low prices the last two years, while nations that depend highly on oil revenues are also likely to benefit.