LONDON/MOSCOW: OPEC+, the world’s largest grouping of oil-producing nations, is leaning towards a modest output boost in December, four sources familiar with the talks said, as they push on with monthly increases aimed at clawing back market share.
Having curbed production over several years in a bid to support the oil market, the group, which includes Russia and Saudi Arabia, started easing those curbs in April.
In a series of monthly increases, eight OPEC+ members have boosted output targets by a total of over 2.7 million barrels per day - or about 2.5% of global supply. That is just under half the 5.85 million bpd cumulative cuts in supply the group had agreed in preceding years.
OPEC+ in full has 22 members and pumps about half the world’s oil.
The eight are likely to agree on Sunday to increase December output targets by another 137,000 bpd, two of the four sources said, while the other two sources gave no estimate. All sources declined to be identified by name.
The producer group most recently decided to raise targets by 137,000 bpd for November.
Additional supply from OPEC+ helped drive oil prices to a five-month low on Oct. 20 on concern that a glut was building. US President Donald Trump, however, imposed new sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies last week, spurring a rally above $66 a barrel and easing investor worries about a glut.
The group has found the most recent monthly increases more difficult to agree because sanctions are making it difficult for Russia to find buyers for additional output.
Russia and Saudi Arabia, the two biggest OPEC+ producers, have over the past years sometimes disagreed on the size of output rises but ultimately found a compromise.
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