FirstFT: Saudi Arabia pledges oil cuts of 1mn barrels a day

Saudi Arabia will cut oil production by 1mn barrels a day to boost oil prices, the country announced after a meeting of the Opec+ group of producers in Vienna on Sunday.

The kingdom’s energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who is Opec’s de facto leader, made the move as part of a deal in which several African members will have quotas reduced from next year.

Oil prices have slid in the past 10 months despite several attempts by producers to tighten supplies.

The kingdom and other members announced a surprise cut in April but, after briefly rallying towards $90 a barrel, prices again reversed, falling to nearly $70 a barrel at one stage last week.

The 1mn b/d cut will initially be for July but could be extended, Prince Abdulaziz said. He described it as a “Saudi lollipop”, or sweetener, for the group, whose other members were spared from making additional cuts this year.

Here’s what else I’m keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: China, the EU, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US release their Caixin/Cips/S&P Global final services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) survey today.

• Apple: The tech company stages its Worldwide Developers Conference from its headquarters in Cupertino, California today.

• World Environment Day: Events will be staged around the globe to increase awareness of worldwide environmental concerns today.

Five more top stories

1. China has warned western militaries to stay out of waters and airspace near its borders if they want to avoid dangerous run-ins with the People’s Liberation Army.

2. Turkey’s new finance minister has pledged to return to “rational” policies after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s unconventional strategy put the country’s economy under intense strain and sent the lira to record lows.

3. Indian officials have blamed Saturday’s train crash on a signal failure as the death toll nears 300 and prime minister Narendra Modi vowed to punish those responsible.

4. AstraZeneca defies geopolitics to bet on China, with chief executive Pascal Soriot calling the market “completely open” for pharma investment.

5. Hollywood studios have reached a tentative contract deal with the union representing directors, easing fears of a shutdown.

The Big Read

Polish oil and gas company Orlen and its chief executive are at the centre of a debate over political influence on the economy. The rise of Orlen reflects Poland’s new status as a European bulwark against Russian influence and aggression. But as Poles prepare to vote in a fiercely contested national election scheduled to take place this autumn, chief executive Daniel Obajtek and the company have become central to a roiling political debate in Poland over the state’s influence on the energy market and the rest of the economy. Is Poland’s energy giant a tool of the government?

We’re also reading and listening to . . . 

• AI therapy: AI has clear potential to act as a “listening service” for people with mental illness. But unsupervised AI “self-medication” could also be very dangerous, warns the FT’s flagship investment column, Lex.

• FT Weekend podcast 🎧: In this week’s episode, reporter Monica Mark tells host Lilah Raptopoulos about the brutal life of a South African copper thief.

• JPMorgan: Rather than a cause for open celebration, JPMorgan’s Global China Summit was a highly cautious affair, as typified by the US bank’s approach to its own event, writes Thomas Hale.

Chart of the day

Japan is often in the spotlight for its declining birth rate. But South Korea’s ageing population will be an even larger economic burden by 2050, according to the UN World Population Prospects. South Korea’s dependency ratio — the number of people aged 65 and over as proportion of its working-age population — is expected to treble to 75 per cent during the next three decades.

Take a break from the news

Chinese-American sci-fi writer Ted Chiang — whose novella Story of Your Life was adapted into the Hollywood film Arrival — sits down with Madhumita Murgia for Lunch with the FT to talk about the limits of AI, the uses of science fiction, and why “the machines we have now are not conscious”.

Additional contributions by Tee Zhuo and Vita Dadoo Lomeli