OPEC + will discuss the possibility of increasing its oil production levels at the next meeting, OPEC + sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
The group will meet on March 4, where the discussion of production to half a million barrels per day from April will be discussed, the sources said.
OPEC + members are currently suppressing oil production by more than 7 million barrels per day, but as oil prices are now rising and markets get the idea that the market may intensify, OPEC + may consider loosening the reins.
The last meeting of OPEC + for the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which met in the first week of February, ended without much surprise. For the month of February, another 75,000 bpd was added to the quotas – 65,000 bpd in Russia and 10,000 bpd in Kazakhstan. For the month of March, production quotas were again facilitated by 75 000 bpd – again to Russia (65 000 bpd) and Kazakhstan (10 000 bpd).
But Saudi Arabia announced in January that it would voluntarily cut an extra million bpd from its quota in February and March.
Saudi Arabia has not committed to cutting these additional million barrels after March, so it is quite possible that this OPEC + meeting will end with an additional 1.5 million barrels being added: an additional 500,000 bpd at the production quotas, and an extra million bpd from Saudi Arabia.
The oil markets have improved in recent weeks, with crude oil inventories in the world’s most visible oil market, the United States, finally returning to its five-year average. The price of Brent oil fell to more than $ 67 a barrel, and WTI traded more than $ 63 as of Wednesday afternoon. This is the highest level in oil prices in more than a year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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