The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its Allies will suspend production increases in the first three months of next year

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Allies (OPEC+) have decided to maintain the production plan set in early November and suspend production increases in the first three months of next year.

Xinhua News Agency reported that representatives from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman held an online meeting on Sunday (November 30) to discuss the situation and prospects of the international oil market.

The eight major oil-producing countries issued a statement after the meeting, saying that due to seasonal factors, they have decided to suspend the pace of increasing production in January, February and March next year, and the output will remain the same as that in December this year.

The statement also said that the current global economic outlook is relatively stable and the fundamentals of the oil market are solid. Meanwhile, to maintain the stability of the oil market, the eight countries will flexibly adjust the pace of increasing production based on market conditions.

In April 2023, the above-mentioned eight countries announced voluntary production cuts of approximately 1.65 million barrels of crude oil per day, and in November 2023, they announced an additional voluntary production cut of 2.2 million barrels of crude oil per day. Since then, these two major production cut measures have been postponed several times. However, during this period, the crude oil production of countries such as the United States and Canada increased, causing the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to lose some market share.

In March this year, the above-mentioned eight countries decided to gradually increase crude oil production starting from April 1st. In May, June and July, the average daily increase was 411,000 barrels; in August, it was 548,000 barrels; in September, it was 547,000 barrels; and in October, November and December, it was 137,000 barrels.