OPEC’s Oil Production Drops ahead of Key Policy Meeting

OPEC saw its crude oil production decline by 48,000 barrels per day (bpd) in April compared to March, the organization’s monthly report showed two weeks before the crucial meeting at which the wider OPEC+ group is set to decide on production levels after June.
Total crude oil production of all 12 OPEC members averaged 26.58 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, down by 48,000 bpd compared to March, according to secondary sources in OPEC’s closely-watched Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) published on Tuesday. Iran, exempted from the cuts, raised its output, while production fell in Nigeria, Iraq, and another producer exempted from the OPEC+ quotas, Venezuela
At the same time, total production from the non-OPEC countries part of OPEC+, or the so-called Declaration of Cooperation (DoC), fell by 198,000 bpd to 14.44 million bpd in April, said OPEC, which started to include DoC demand and supply in its monthly reports.
In the report for May out today, OPEC said “Going forward, the MOMR will focus on ‘demand for DoC crude’ instead of the usual ‘demand for OPEC crude’.”
“With this, the MOMR’s section on ‘balance of supply and demand’ will now only report ‘demand for DoC crude’,” OPEC said in a move suggesting that it remains committed to the broader OPEC+ alliance to manage supply to the market.
“This relevant and appropriate improvement not only demonstrates solidarity and unity within the DoC framework, which is now in its eighth year, but also helps eliminate the potential for misunderstanding and/or misinterpretations,” said OPEC in its report.
Among OPEC members, top producer Saudi Arabia continued to stick to its pledge to pump about 9 million bpd, while Iraq saw its production drop by 32,000 bpd in April from March as OPEC’s second-largest producer is compensating for overproduction in previous months.
Among non-OPEC DoC producers, crude oil output slumped in Russia, by 154,000 bpd in April from March, per the secondary sources, due to reduced refining capacity following Ukrainian attacks on refineries in Russia.

About Parvin Faghfouri Azar

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