OPEC + will discuss the possibility of increasing its oil production levels at the next meeting, OPEC + sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
The group is expected to meet on March 4, where it will discuss increasing production by up to half a million barrels a day starting in April, the sources said.
OPEC + members are currently suppressing oil production by more than 7 million barrels a day, but with oil prices now on the rise and markets having the idea that the market may be tightening, OPEC + may consider loosen the reins.
The last meeting of the OPEC + Joint Ministerial Follow-up Committee met in the first week of February ended without many surprises. For the month of February, another 75,000 bpd was added to the quotas – 65,000 bpd for Russia and 10,000 bpd for Kazakhstan. For the month of March, production quotas were reduced again by another 75,000 bpd – again for Russia (65,000 bpd) and Kazakhstan (10,000 bpd).
But Saudi Arabia announced in January that it would voluntarily cut another 1 million bpd from its quota in February and March.
Saudi Arabia has not committed to cut this million additional barrels after March, so it is very possible that this OPEC + meeting will end with 1.5 million additional barrels added to the mix: an additional 500,000 bpd added to production quotas and one million of additional bpd from Saudi Arabia.
Oil markets have improved in recent weeks, with crude oil stocks in the world’s most visible oil market, the United States, finally returning to their five-year average. The price of Brent oil rebounded to more than $ 67 a barrel, with WTI trading above $ 63 on Wednesday afternoon. This is the highest level that oil prices have seen in over a year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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