OPEC+ responded to months of diplomatic efforts from US President Joe Biden with one of the smallest oil production increases in its history. Picture: BLOOMBERG
The 23-nation alliance will divide that amount proportionally between members, and with only the Saudis and the UAE able to bolster production, just a fraction of it is likely to be delivered. For July and August, the group had pledged to add more than 600,000 barrels a day to the market. At the end of the day, we’re not looking at numbers of barrels, we’re looking at: are oil prices coming down from their highs?Ministers endorsed the proposal at an online meeting on Wednesday, according to a statement on the Opec website. There were no discussions about whether the organisation and its allies would keep increasing production in subsequent months, delegates said. The group meets again on September 5.
“We saw that Opec increased their supply in July and August, quite significantly, and now they’re continuing that,” Amos Hochstein, the state department’s senior adviser for global energy security, said in an interview in Washington. “At the end of the day, we’re not looking at numbers of barrels, we’re looking at: are oil prices coming down from their highs?”