Vienna: After the United Arab Emirates blocked a deal earlier this month, the world’s major oil producers agreed on Sunday to continue to slightly increase production starting in August, and reached a compromise.
The organization’s Vienna-based secretariat stated in a media statement that the OPEC+ meeting decided to increase production by 400,000 barrels per day from August to help promote the recovery of the global economy as the pandemic eases.
It stated that the group will “assess market development” in December. The agreement will also extend the deadline for limiting production from April next year to the end of 2022.
In early July, due to a dispute between Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, and neighboring United Arab Emirates, OPEC+ member states’ negotiations on relaxing production cuts fell into a deadlock.
Since May, the 23-member group (which also includes Russia) has increased its oil production bit by bit after slashing oil production due to the coronavirus pandemic hitting demand more than a year ago.
The goal is to return to pre-pandemic production levels, and the coalition’s daily output is still 5.8 million barrels less than before the pandemic.
