A meeting of top OPEC+ ministers has kept oil output policy unchanged including a plan to start raising output from December.
On Wednesday, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) emphasized in a statement the critical importance of achieving full conformity and compensation after it reviewed the crude oil production data for the months of July and August 2024 and current market conditions.
It stated that Iraq, Kazakhstan, and Russia confirmed that they had achieved full conformity and compensation according to the schedules submitted for September.
The three countries also reiterated their strong commitment to maintaining full conformity and compensation throughout the remaining period of the agreement.
The JMMC then emphasized it will continue to monitor adherence to the production adjustments and will also continue to monitor the additional voluntary production adjustments announced by some participating OPEC and non OPEC countries.
The next meeting of the JMMC (57th) is scheduled for December 1, 2024.
The JMMC usually meets every two months and can make recommendations to change policy.
OPEC+ is currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 5.7% of global demand, in a series of steps agreed since late 2022.
Its latest agreement calls for OPEC+ to raise output by 180,000 bpd in December, part of a plan to gradually unwind its most recent layer of voluntary cuts during 2025. The hike was delayed from October after prices slid.
Speaking hours before the planned virtual meeting of an OPEC+ committee, United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei said on Wednesday OPEC+ was doing a noble job of balancing the oil market even if does not produce the majority of oil in the world.
“OPEC+ has sacrificed more than others but the critical element is that it is staying together,” Mazrouei said at an industry event in the emirate of Fujairah.
“I would like you to imagine the world without this group. We would be in chaos,” Mazrouei said.