China oil cut could help OPEC to prop up prices

OPEC's campaign to prop up oil prices is getting unlikely support from its biggest customer.

China's production is forecast to fall by as much as 7 percent this year, extending a record decline in 2016, according to analysts at CLSA Ltd, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co and Nomura Holdings Inc.

That's about the same size as the output cut agreed by Iraq, the second-biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which late last year reached a deal to trim supply to support prices.