Seven core members of OPEC+ agreed Sunday to raise collective oil output by 188,000 barrels per day starting in September, a sixth consecutive monthly increase that completes the group’s rollback of voluntary production cuts first introduced in 2023.
The participating countries are Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman, OPEC said in a statement
That September hike brings to a close the gradual reversal of a 1.65 million barrel-per-day output reduction the group first adopted in 2023, according to CNBC. A separate layer of cuts totaling roughly 2 million barrels per day, introduced by the broader OPEC+ group in 2022, remains in place through the end of the year. Despite the successive monthly quota increases, much of the additional output has not reached markets.
Supply disruptions in Russia, Kazakhstan, and the Gulf region stemming from the Iran and Ukraine conflicts have meant the quota increases have translated into little actual new oil reaching markets. On Saturday, President Trump said he had called off a planned attack on Iran after agreeing to terms that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, according to the Wall Street Journal. With the 2023 cut reversal now complete, OPEC+ faces its next challenge of deciding whether to begin unwinding additional cuts or hold output steady.