“OPEC Plus” raises production by 400,000 barrels in April

LONDON (Archyde.com) – OPEC Plus sources said today, Wednesday, that the oil producers’ bloc agreed to abide by plans to increase production by 400,000 barrels in April, despite a sharp jump in prices amid sanctions against Russia over its military attack on Ukraine. Oil topped $110 this week, its highest level in nearly eight years, as Western sanctions tightened the noose further on Moscow, disrupting supplies from Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter. The measures taken by the West have also caused problems with exports from Kazakhstan, which is also a member of “OPEC Plus”, which is made up of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and allied oil-producing countries. And “OPEC Plus” has increased production by 400,000 barrels every month since last August, in the context of reversing the production cuts they had decided due to the decrease in demand for oil due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Four sources in “OPEC Plus” said that the ministers in the bloc agreed to abide by the existing production plans during an online meeting that lasted less than a quarter of an hour. This also came after a recommendation not to change the existing plans at the meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee. “The participants rejected the geopolitical tension as an influencing factor in the meeting,” a source said earlier, in reference to the preparatory talks that took place earlier, and affirmed their commitment to the basic factors. Russia described its actions in Ukraine as a “special operation” and said it had no intention of occupying it. The United States has repeatedly called for an increase in the bloc’s production. Yet very few countries have the additional capacity to increase production. The remaining effective cuts to OPEC Plus production due to the pandemic are 2.6 million barrels per day, and the bloc is expected to recover it by the end of next September. With demand recovering strongly due to the decline in the impact of the pandemic, oil prices jumped to sharp levels.