OPEC+ Agrees Further Oil Output Boost by 137,000 bpd from October

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja 

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies known (OPEC+) has agreed to further raise oil production from October as the organisation pushes to regain market share, while slowing the pace of increases compared with previous months.

OPEC+ has been increasing production since April after years of cuts to support the oil market, but the Sunday decision to further boost output came as a surprise amid a likely looming oil glut in the northern hemisphere winter months.

Eight members of OPEC+ agreed in an online meeting to raise production from October by 137,000 barrels per day, it said in a statement, much lower than the monthly increases of about 555,000 bpd for September and August and 411,000 bpd in July and June. The deal also means OPEC+ has begun to unwind a second tranche of cuts of about 1.65 million bpd by eight members more than a year ahead of schedule. The group has already fully unwound the first tranche of 2.5 million bpd since April, equivalent to about 2.4 percent of global demand.

“The barrels may be small, but the message is big,” an analyst at Rystad and a former OPEC official, Jorge Leon, told Reuters.  “The increase is less about volumes and more about signalling – OPEC+ is prioritizing market share even if it risks softer prices,” he added.