Oil-producing countries grouped together under the OPEC+ alliance led by Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed on output increases as of next month at a ministerial meeting on Thursday.
A statement from the alliance said that they had agreed to boost output by “no more than 0.5 million” barrels per day (bpd) in May, June and July.
The decision comes despite the expectation ahead of the meeting that the bloc would err on the side of caution.
Addressing the press after the meeting, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdelaziz bin Salman stressed that the decision could still be “tweaked” in the alliance’s monthly meetings.
Before the meeting Prince Abdelaziz said that “the reality remains that the global picture is far from even, and the recovery is far from complete”.
Salman praised the OPEC+ alliance nations for more than fulfilling their commitments to restrain output.
Under its current agreement, the OPEC+ group — made up of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies including Russia — is enforcing drastic cuts in production, meaning seven million barrels that could be shipped to markets every day are being left in the ground.
In addition, Saudi Arabia has volunteered to cut its own output by one million barrels per day (bpd) to help avoid oversupplying a market suffering from a collapse in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The cuts were aimed at avoiding limited storage capacity being saturated and supporting prices — currently hovering around $60 per barrel.