Opec+ has agreed to maintain its formal crude production quotas until the end of 2026, following a series of ministerial meetings today.
The quotas take into account a nominal 2mn b/d worth of group-wide output cuts introduced in November 2022, but exclude two sets of "voluntary" reductions implemented later by some members of the alliance.
One of those — a 2.2mn b/d voluntary cut introduced in late 2023 — is up for discussion on 31 May, when eight core Opec+ members meet to decide how much of that production to restore in July.
The same eight producers — Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, Oman and Kazakhstan — plus Gabon are also implementing a second set of voluntary cuts totalling 1.66mn b/d, which are scheduled to remain in place until the end of 2026.
Opec+ today reiterated its call for full compliance with production targets and urged overproducers to honour their pledges to compensate. Some members have consistently exceeded their targets since the start of last year, most notably Kazakhstan and Iraq.
In a step towards longer-term planning, the alliance instructed the Opec secretariat to develop a methodology for assessing and updating each member's maximum sustainable production capacity. These figures will be used to determine new production baselines for members, from which output targets for 2027 will be calculated.
Opec+ ministers are next scheduled to meet on 30 November.
