Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister said Tuesday that OPEC had curbed much of the world's surplus oil supplies through already agreed to output cuts, sending crude futures down and some industrial stocks in the U.S up.

Ali Al-Naimi told reporters that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is following through on promises it made in October to slow oil production, Reuters reported, adding that there was no need to panic over falling prices.

Inventories in the fourth quarter have come down, he said, which puts the market closer to balance. I think we have succeeded very well.

Light sweet crude futures for February fell to close at a 19-month low of $51.21 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The change also sent shares of oil companies such as Exxon (NYSE: XOM), and Chevron (NYSE: CVX) down, but the transport sector was optimistic about the news.

The Dow Jones Transportation Index (DJT) rose over 2 percent to close up 101.57 points to 4,861.84.

The OPEC nations agreed last quarter to cut supply by a total of 1.7 million barrels per day through February 1 of this year.

Energy OPEC