The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) ministerial monitoring committee has reaffirmed the major producers’ decision to extend their voluntary production cuts to the end of next year.
“We express our support for Saudi Arabia’s efforts to support the stability of the oil market,” the OPEC+ Monitoring Committee said in a statement issued after opening its 49th meeting via video conference today (April 4).
“We will continue to closely assess market conditions and stand ready to take further action at any time,” it said, urging members to honor their production cuts.
Saudi Arabia announced the previous day that it would maintain its current voluntary output cut of 1 million barrels per day in September.
Currently, the kingdom’s crude oil production is around 9 million barrels per day.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and OPEC+, a council of major non-OPEC producers including Russia, agreed to a 2 million barrel-per-day production cut last October and surprised markets in April with a surprise announcement of additional voluntary cuts by some members.
Then, at a ministerial meeting in June, the deadline for voluntary cuts was extended to the end of next year, prompting Saudi Arabia to announce a further 1 million barrels per day of production cuts, which it then followed up with actual production cuts in July.
Russia, which announced a voluntary cut of 500,000 barrels per day starting in March, cut its crude exports by another 500,000 barrels per day starting this month.
However, Russia decided to cut its oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day in September, which the watchdog recognized.
The voluntary cuts led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, 먹튀검증 combined with existing cuts, totaled 3.66 million barrels per day, or about 3.6 percent of global demand, Reuters reported.