Eight countries in the OPEC+ alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, decided to increase oil production by 137,000 barrels per day in December, before suspending monthly increases between January and March 2026.
“The eight participating countries decided to implement a production adjustment of 137,000 barrels per day in December, relative to the production level required in November,” explained the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in a statement.
The decision follows a meeting, via video conference, in which Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Oman and Algeria participated.
The increase announced this Sunday – the ninth in a row – occurs “taking into account a stable global economic outlook and the current solid market fundamentals, reflected in the low levels of oil reserves”, says the organization.
Since April, the eight countries have increased their production targets monthly, adding in total around 2.7 million barrels per day, to face growing competition, particularly from North American shale oil producers.
From the beginning of next year, member states decided, “due to seasonality”, to suspend production increases for three months, between January and March.
The increase over the next month will be applied “from the 1.65 million barrels per day of additional voluntary adjustments announced in April 2023”, which, according to Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Oman and Algeria “may be partially or fully refunded, depending on the evolution of market conditions and gradually”.
On the other hand, the eight countries emphasize “the importance of adopting a prudent approach and maintaining full flexibility to continue suspending or reversing additional voluntary production adjustments, including the previously implemented voluntary adjustments of 2.2 million barrels per day announced in November 2023”.
Founded in 1960, in Baghdad, by Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq and Kuwait, OPEC is currently made up of 12 countries.
In 2016, after realizing that it was unable to stop the fall in oil prices caused by the increase in shale oil in the United States alone, the group decided to cooperate with 10 other countries, including Russia, Mexico, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, thus creating the OPEC+ alliance.