Global Oil Price Rises as OPEC+ Cuts Production

Brent, the global benchmark for crude oil, jumped in price on Monday, following the voluntary production cuts by member nations of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, as well as OPEC allies, jointly referred to as OPEC+.

Oil price, which hovered around $70/barrel a month ago, the lowest in about 15 months, suddenly jumped to $84.7/barrel as at 5.23pm Nigerian time on Monday, global oil price data showed.

This came as the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee of OPEC held its 48th meeting via videoconference on Monday, OPEC stated on its website, where it also officially announced the voluntary oil production cuts by some countries.

It said the committee reviewed the crude oil production data for the months of January and February 2023 and noted the overall conformity for participating OPEC and non-OPEC countries of the Declaration of Cooperation.

Also Read: OPEC, Allies Begin Fresh Oil Production Cuts May

It said the members of the JMMC reaffirmed their commitment to the DoC, which extended to the end of 2023 as decided at the 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting on October 5, 2022, and urged all participating countries to achieve full conformity and adhere to the compensation mechanism.

“The meeting noted the following voluntary production adjustment announced on April 2, 2023 by Saudi Arabia, 500,000bpd; Iraq, 211,000bpd; United Arab Emirates, 144,000bpd; Kuwait, 128,000; Kazakhstan, 78,000; Algeria, 48,000; Oman, 40,000; and Gabon, 8,000bpd, starting from May till the end of 2023.

“These will be in addition to the production adjustments decided at the 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting,

“The above will be in addition to the announced voluntary adjustment by the Russian Federation of 500,000bpd, until the end of 2023, which will be from the average production levels as assessed by the secondary sources for the month of February 2023,” OPEC stated.

It explained that this would bring the total additional voluntary production adjustments by the above-mentioned countries to 1.66 million bpd. Nigeria is a strong and long-standing member of OPEC.

The global oil cartel stated that the meeting noted that the oil production cut was a precautionary measure aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market.

“The committee thanked the OPEC Secretariat for their contribution to the meeting, as the body stated that the next meeting of the JMMC (49th) was scheduled for June 4, 2023,” it stated.