OPEC+ is discussing postponing its oil output hike due to start in January for the first quarter of 2025, OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Thursday, and will hold further talks on this and other options ahead of its delayed policy meeting on Dec. 5.
Issues that need to be addressed include an output hike for the United Arab Emirates agreed in June this year that’s scheduled to start in January 2025, two of the sources said, declining to be identified.
OPEC+, which pumps about half the world’s oil, is gradually aiming to unwind output cuts through 2025. However, a slowdown in global demand and rising output outside the group pose hurdles to that plan and have weighed on prices.
Despite the group’s supply cuts, global oil benchmark Brent crude has mostly stayed in a $70-$80 per barrel range this year and on Thursday was trading around $73 a barrel, having hit a 2024 low below $69 in September.
Earlier on Thursday, OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies such as Russia, postponed its next meeting on output policy to Dec. 5 from Dec. 1. OPEC said moving the date would avoid a clash with another event.
A summit of Gulf Arab countries is due to be held in Kuwait City on Dec. 1 which several OPEC+ ministers plan to attend, OPEC said in a statement.
“Sunday does not suit everyone,” a source told Reuters before the official announcement.
Top OPEC+ ministers have held talks ahead of the meeting. Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, de facto head of OPEC, on Wednesday had a phone call with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak and Kazakh Energy Minister Almasadam Satkaliyev while in Kazakhstan on an official visit.
Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Russia held talks in Baghdad on Tuesday.
OPEC+ on Nov. 3 again postponed its first output hike, which had been set for December, by one month.
OPEC+ members are holding back 5.86 million barrels per day (bpd) of output, or about 5.7% of global demand.
Their planned first increase of about 180,000 bpd – a fraction of the total – is due to be made by the eight members involved in the group’s most recent cuts of 2.2 million bpd.
The UAE, which has been expanding its oil production capacity, also negotiated an oil output hike of 300,000 bpd during 2025 that’s scheduled to start in January. — Reuters