Oil price surges after Opec action but shale could spoil the party

Singapore

OIL-AND-GAS stocks on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) rallied on Thursday, after oil cartel Opec beat expectations by agreeing to cut output by 1.2 million barrels a day for the first six months of 2017. Non-Opec countries are expected to join in with another 0.6 million-barrel cut.

Rig builders Keppel and SembMarine, liftboat provider Ezion and other struggling names like contractor Ezra, explorers KrisEnergy and Rex International, and offshore-support vessel builder Nam Cheong all notched sizeable gains of 3 to 10 per cent.

Brent crude oil for January delivery surged 9 per cent past US$50 a barrel. But analysts…