Oil Prices increase as OPEC+ keeps gradual output hike

Oil prices continued an upward trend on Monday after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies agreed to maintain its schedule of gradual monthly oil production increases.

OPEC+ consists of 24 oil-producing nations, made up of the 14 members of OPEC and 10 other non-OPEC members, including Russia.

The OPEC bloc is led by Saudi Arabia, the group’s largest oil producer, while Russia is the biggest player among the non-OPEC countries.

Brent crude oil futures, global oil benchmark, rose by 2.9 percent to $81.58 a barrel by 4:28 pm on Monday, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures increased by 2.64 percent to $77.88 a barrel.

In June, OPEC+ agreed to continue to boost output in line with the group’s April decision to return 2.1 million barrels per day to the market between May and July.

At its meeting in July, the group agreed to increase production by 400,000 barrels per day, an adjustment that would run till December 2021.

Rising from its 21st ministering meeting on Monday, the group reaffirmed the decision of the July meeting.

It also reconfirmed the monthly overall production by 0.4 m b/d for November 2021.

“Reiterated the critical importance of adhering to full conformity and to the compensation mechanism taking advantage of the extension of the compensation period until the end of December 2021,” a statement at the end of the meeting reads.

In August, the United States (US) government called OPEC+ to increase oil production to tackle rising gasoline prices.

Jake Sullivan, national security advisor, said the increase (400,000 bpd) was not enough to bolster the oil market amid economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.