OPEC+ extends output cuts to support oil prices

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, decided to extend its current output cuts at least into the third quarter of this year to shore up oil prices, reported Xinhua.

Following a virtual meeting of OPEC+ oil and energy ministers, OPEC said in a statement that OPEC+ will extend this year's production quotas for its members to the whole year of 2025. The quotas include a 2 million barrels per day (bpd) cut to the official output targets originally agreed in late 2022.

While the 2025 production quotas for OPEC+ countries remain largely the same as in 2024, the oil-producer group agreed on Sunday to raise the output cap of the United Arab Emirates by 300,000 bpd to 3.519 million bpd, according to the statement.

In a separate statement released on the OPEC website, eight OPEC+ countries -- Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman -- said they would prolong voluntary production cuts of 1.65 million bpd, first announced in April 2023, to the end of 2025.

The eight countries will also extend voluntary output cuts of 2.2 million bpd, originally announced in November 2023, to the end of September 2024. This part of voluntary production cuts will be "gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2025 to support market stability," but "the monthly increase can be paused or reversed subject to market conditions," according to the statement.

The announcements of the voluntary production cuts were made after oil ministers of the eight countries met in person in Riyadh on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the wider OPEC+.

The voluntary cuts are deducted from the countries' respective production quotas set by OPEC+.

International crude benchmark Brent has loitered slightly above 80 U.S. dollars a barrel for the past weeks amid global economic uncertainties, high interest rates and rising supply from producers outside OPEC+.

OPEC said in Sunday's statement that OPEC+ has made the latest decisions to "achieve and sustain a stable oil market, and to provide long-term guidance and transparency for the market, and in line with the approach of being precautious, proactive, and pre-emptive."

Despite the slack oil prices, OPEC maintained its forecast for a robust global oil demand growth of 2.2 million bpd for 2024 and 1.8 million bpd for 2025 in its latest market report.

OPEC+ is set to hold its next ministerial meeting in December.