Brent, the worldwide benchmark for crude oil, rose in price on Monday as a result of voluntary production cuts by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) as well as OPEC allies, known collectively as OPEC+.
Oil prices, which were hovering around $70/barrel a month ago, the lowest in almost 15 months, rose to $84.7/barrel as of 5.23pm Nigerian time on Monday, according to global oil price statistics.
This happened as OPEC’s Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee convened its 48th meeting via videoconference on Monday, according to OPEC’s website, where it also officially declared certain nations’ voluntary oil output cutbacks.
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.
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 noted that the total extra voluntary production adjustments made by the aforementioned countries would amount to 1.66 million bpd. Nigeria is a long-standing and powerful member of OPEC.
According to the global oil cartel, the meeting emphasized that the oil output decrease was a precautionary move aimed at sustaining the oil market’s stability.
“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.
