WED, 03 AUG, 2022-theGBJournal| The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and OPEC+ agreed today, at the end of their 31st Ministerial meeting, to hike the production level for OPEC and non-OPEC participating countries by 0.1 mb/d for the month of September 2022.
The hike, the second smallest hike in cartel’s history, behind the 1986 outcome, sent Brent crude price back above the $100 a barrel mark today.
The cartel in a communique, noted ‘’the dynamic and rapidly evolving oil market fundamentals, necessitating continuous assessment of markets fundaments,’’ and noted also ‘’that the severely limited availability of excess capacity necessitates utilizing it with great caution in response to severe supply disruptions.’’
Analysts say the tiny increase, considerably less than the 300-400 mb/d expected by many, is rebuff to the U.S President who went to Saudi Arabia last month to persuade OPEC leadership to ‘’pump more oil’’ to help the global economy recover quicker.
OPEC and allies have up until now been increasing production by as much as 650,000 bpd a month and many including Nigeria have struggled to meet their output potential.
Meanwhile, OPEC cited preliminary data for OECD commercial oil stocks level which stands at 2.712 mb in June 2022, which was 163 mb lower than the same level last year, and 236 mb below the 2015-2019 average, and warned that emergency oil stocks have reached their lowest levels in more than 30 years.
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