The shutdown earlier this month has cut production, already at a nine-year low, by 83,000 barrels a day.

So that very same day, I introduced a new domestic energy strategy which would cut our dependence on foreign oil by seven million barrels a day.

The decline came after the International Energy Agency cut its estimates for world oil demand this year by 200,000 barrels.

The cutback, if approved, would be a response to the seven other oil-producing nations that offered to cut exports by 200,000 barrels a day.

They come on top of prior announced reductions aimed at cutting production by 3.5 million barrels a day, or 13 percent.

Last week, they moved to cut output by 900,000 barrels per day as of Nov. 1, catching the experts by surprise.

Reports that a leaking pipeline there had cut output by 140,000 barrels a day sent prices skyrocketing.

OPEC members agreed to cut output by more than 1.5 million barrels a day.

When an agreement to cut oil production by 450,000 barrels a day came yesterday, the price of a barrel of oil rose 2 percent.

They also defeated a bid to direct the president to find ways to cut the nation's appetite for oil by one million barrels a day.