Despite increased production levels, growth was slower compared to recent months due to weakening global demand.
“Given a stable global economic outlook and sound market fundamentals, reflected in low crude oil inventories, the eight participating countries decided to implement an output adjustment (increase) of 137,000 barrels per day,” stated the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in a release.
This marks the seventh production increase since April, when they boosted output by 137,000 barrels per day, followed by a surprising tripling of the monthly increase to 411,000 bpd in May, June, and July, further accelerating in August and September to 548,000 bpd.
With this new action, OPEC+ has raised its production by 2.6 mbd since April, approximately 2.5% of global demand, aiming to enhance its market share.
The decision was reached in a teleconference involving energy ministers from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman.
These eight key OPEC+ countries have thus reversed the production cuts they voluntarily applied in 2023.
Analysts view this policy as a strategic shift for OPEC+, primarily driven by Saudi Arabia, favoring market share recovery through lower prices rather than the previous strategy of upholding prices with significant production cuts.
