https://arab.news/4a5kp
RIYADH: OPEC+ on Thursday agreed to extend their supply cuts for three months through March to to support market stability.
OPEC+ countries, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, “will extend their additional voluntary adjustments of 2.2 million barrels per day... until the end of March 2025,” the alliance said in a statement.
A virtual meeting was held on the sidelines of the 38th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting.
According to the statement, the meeting welcomed the pledges made by the overproducing countries to achieve full conformity and resubmit their updated compensation schedule to the OPEC Secretariat for the overproduced volumes since January 2024 before the end of December 2024.
The alliance members will extend their additional voluntary adjustments of 2.2 million bpd, that were announced in November 2023, until the end of March 2025 and then the 2.2 million barrels per day adjustments will be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026. This monthly increase can be paused or reversed subject to market conditions.
OPEC+ members are holding back 5.86 million bpd of output, or about 5.7 percent of global demand, in a series of steps agreed since 2022 to support the market.
The alliance also agreed to allow the UAE to raise output by 300,000 bpd gradually from April until the end of September 2026, instead of the earlier plan to start it in January 2025.
Despite the group’s supply cuts, global oil benchmark Brent crude has mostly stayed in a $70 to $80 per barrel range this year and on Thursday traded near $72 a barrel, having hit a 2024 low below $69 in September.