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 it will discuss increasing production to as much as half a million barrels per day from April, the sources said.
OPEC + members are currently suppressing oil production by more than 7 million barrels per day, but with oil prices rising and markets feeling that the market is tightening, OPEC + may consider letting go of the reins.
The last meeting of the OPEC + Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which met in the first week of February, ended without many surprises. For February another 75,000 bpd was added to the quota: 65,000 bpd for Russia and 10,000 bpd for Kazakhstan. For the month of March, production quotas were again cut by another 75,000 bpd – again to Russia (65,000 bpd) and Kazakhstan (10,000 bpd).
But Saudi Arabia had announced in January that it would voluntarily lower a further 1 million bpd from its quota in February and March.
Saudi Arabia has not committed to reduce this additional million barrels after March, so it is very possible that this OPEC + meeting will end with an additional 1.5 million barrels added to the mix: an additional 500,000 barrels per day added to the production quota and an extra million barrels per day. from Saudi Arabia.
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 the five-year average. The price of Brent oil soared to over $ 67 a barrel, with the WTI trading above $ 63 on Wednesday afternoon. These are the highest oil prices we’ve seen in more than a year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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