OPEC+ pre-meeting panel recommends sticking with output increase

The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which oversees the cartel’s production cuts, endorsed the continuation of 400,000 barrel-a-day monthly supply boosts, delegates said. The panel’s online talks lasted less than 30 minutes, in contrast to the drawn-out negotiations seen at the cartel’s previous meeting in July. 

The full meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies is now underway, delegates said. 

With crude prices mostly recovered from their mid-August slump and the supply outlook relatively tight for the rest of the year, the group has little reason to change the established schedule of gradual monthly supply hikes. 

OPEC and allies including Russia are in the process of rolling back the unprecedented output cuts implemented at the depths of the Covid-19 crisis last year. About 45% of the idle supply has already been revived, and in July the group laid out a plan for gradually returning the remainder through to September 2022.

There were some questions about that schedule when oil markets wobbled over the summer as the resurgent pandemic threatened demand in China and the US. But fuel use proved resilient and OPEC-watchers had widely expected the group to stick with its plan.