Crude futures surged by more than 4% in Monday-morning trade in Asia after more oil-producing nations agreed to slash production , a move aimed at pushing the oversupplied oil market into a rebalance, or even a deficit, to prop up oil prices. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in January recently traded at $53.79 a barrel, up $2.29 in the Globex electronic session. February Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose $2.26 to $56.59 a barrel, the highest level in more than a year. Energy stocks also soared on the news. In Hong Kong, PetroChina was up 2.4% and Cnooc was up 1.8%. In Australia, Woodside Petroleum was up 3.1% and Oil Search was up 3.5%. In Japan, Inpex was up 1.7%. Over the weekend, a group of heavyweight producers outside of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, including Russia, agreed […]