OPEC disclosed this at its 36th OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies on Thursday agreed to cut monthly oil output by additional 1 million barrels per day starting in 2024.

OPEC disclosed this at its 36th OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting, a statement released by the organisation said.

The OPEC Secretariat noted that the announcement of additional voluntary cuts is aimed at supporting the stability and balance of oil markets.

“These voluntary cuts are calculated from the 2024 required production level as per the 35th OPEC Ministerial Meeting held on June 4 2023, and are in addition to the voluntary cuts previously announced in April 2023 and later extended until the end of 2024.

“These additional voluntary cuts are announced by the following OPEC+ countries: Saudi Arabia (1,000 thousand b/d); Iraq (223 thousand b/d); United Arab Emirates (163 thousand b/d); Kuwait (135 thousand b/d); Kazakhstan (82 thousand b/d); Algeria (51 thousand b/d); and Oman (42 thousand b/d) starting 1st of January until the end of March 2024. Afterwards, in order to support market stability, these voluntary cuts will be returned gradually subject to market conditions,” the oil cartel said.

It said the above will be in addition to the announced voluntary cut by the Russian Federation of 500 thousand barrels per day for the same period (starting 1st of January until the end of March 2024), which will be made from the average export levels of May and June of 2023, and will consist of 300 thousand barrels a day of crude oil and 200 thousand barrels per day of refined products.

It noted that, following the decision of the 35th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting, the completion of the assessment by the three independent sources (IHS, Wood Mackenzie and Rystad Energy) for production level that can be achieved in 2024 by Angola, Congo and Nigeria is as follows: Angola at 1,110 t/bd, Congo at 277 t/bd and Nigeria at 1,500 t/bd. This implies that OPEC believes Nigeria can achieve a production level of 1.5 million barrels per day in 2024 while Angola can achieve 1.11 million barrels per day and Congo 277,000 barrels per day.

Background

OPEC and its allies had, in October last year, agreed to cut oil output by 2 million barrels per day in November, the deepest cut by OPEC+ since the 2020 COVID pandemic.

The decision came despite pressure from the United States and others advocating that the group increase its output.