OPEC and its partners estimate that they passed 99% of their agreed oil supply restrictions in January, a delegate who asked not to be named.
The alliance with 23 countries, known as OPEC +, aimed to keep 7.2 million barrels of crude oil off the market last month – about 7% of global inventories. They agreed to increase production by 500,000 barrels from December as part of a plan to ease budget cuts.
The compliance data is preliminary and will be reviewed by the group’s Joint Technical Committee on Tuesday.
OPEC + approved unprecedented supply restrictions last April after the coronavirus pandemic grounded planes, shut down economies and caused oil prices to collapse. Benchmark Brent crude has nearly tripled since its low that month to $ 56 a barrel, although it is still below what most OPEC + countries need to balance their budgets.
No policy change
Implementation in January was 103% among the members of the Petroleum Exporting Countries Organization and 93% among their non-OPEC partners, a group to which Russia and Kazakhstan belong.
The JTC will present its assessment to the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which will meet on Wednesday to discuss the alliance’s strategy. The JMMC is unlikely to recommend policy changes, delegates said refused to be identified.
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After the modest production increase in January, OPEC + has decided to keep production unchanged in February and March. However, Saudi Arabia, the most influential member of the group, promised one cut unilaterally from 1 million barrels per day during that period.
Iraq, the largest producer in OPEC + after Saudi Arabia and Russia, said it would cut its daily production to 3.6 million barrels in January and February at compensate for exceeding its quota last year. That would be a reduction of about 250,000 barrels per day from December.
OPEC + will hold a full ministerial meeting in early March to decide on the next steps.