Thursday, March 28

Oil: OPEC + would maintain its policy of modest production increases


“At the moment, I have not heard of any movement to change course”said an OPEC + source. A Russian oil source and two other OPEC + sources also indicated that no changes to the deal are expected next week.

At its last meeting on December 2, OPEC + stuck to the plan for a 400,000 bpd increase in January, despite fears that a release of crude reserves by the United States, the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus, would cause a drop. of crude oil prices.

The benchmark crude price lost more than 10% on Nov. 26, towards $ 72 a barrel, when the first reports on Ómicron emerged, but has since recovered to around $ 80 and OPEC + sources said that December’s decision to go ahead with the supply increase was correct.

“A great result,” said an OPEC + source of the market rebound since the last meeting.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday that OPEC + has resisted calls from Washington to increase pumping because it wants to offer the market clear guidance and not deviate from its policy.

Washington has repeatedly pushed OPEC + to accelerate production increases as US gasoline prices soared and approval ratings for President Joe Biden fell. Faced with resistance, the White House announced in November that it would release reserves along with other consumers.



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