UPDATE 11-Oil scales 1-year peak as OPEC+ rolls over output for April

* Next OPEC+ meeting on April 1
* Saudi to choose when to phase out reduction in coming
months
* Brent, U.S crude futures hit highest since January 2020
* Yemen's Houthis say they fired missile at Saudi Aramco
site

(New throughout, updates prices, market activity and comments)
By Arpan Varghese
BENGALURU, March 4 (Reuters) - Oil rallied more than 5% on
Thursday to the highest in over a year, after OPEC and its
allies agreed to keep production unchanged into April.
Brent crude LCOc1 futures were up $3.38 or 5.28 pct at
$67.45 a barrel by 12:43 p.m. ET (1743 GMT), after rising to
$67.75, a peak since January 2020.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 rose about
$3.3 or 5.4% at $64.58, having also scaled its highest in more
than a year, at $64.86.
"OPEC surprised us by rolling over the cuts... The message
OPEC is sending market is that they're quite willing to see oil
prices run hot and ultimately, go a long way in reducing the
inventory overhang built last year because of COVID-19," said
Bart Melek, head of commodity strategies at TD Securities.
Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman
confirmed that the top crude exporter was extending its
voluntary 1 million barrel per day (bpd) production cut and
would in coming months choose when to gradually phase out this
reduction.
"There is one thorn to the bullish cocktail though and very
few are surprised. Russia wants to boost output," head of oil
markets at Rystad Energy, Bjornar Tonhaugen said in a note.
Russia and Kazakhstan have been allowed modest production
increases under the deal. "Russia aside, the biggest winner of an OPEC+ rollover is
the U.S.. With such price levels, which are now boosted even
more after the news of a possible rollover consensus, the U.S.
can comfortably increase production, even from costly break-even
projects," Tonhaugen added.
In the United States, despite a record surge of more than 21
million barrels in crude oil stockpiles last week, gasoline
stocks fell by the most in 30 years as refining plunged because
of the Texas freeze. Also propping up sentiment, Yemen's Houthi forces said they
had fired a missile at a Saudi Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia's
Jeddah.