OPEC+ plans new output policy

MOSCOW/DUBAI:

OPEC+ ministers plan to hold their next meeting on Sunday to decide on output policy, three sources within the producers group told Reuters on Saturday. The development comes after Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reached a compromise last week in a dispute over OPEC+ policy, in a move that should unlock a deal to supply more crude to a tight oil market and cool soaring prices. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, along with Russia and other allies, a group known as OPEC+, still needs to take a final decision on output policy after talks earlier this month were abandoned because of the dispute between Saudi and the UAE. OPEC could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours. Sunday’s meeting will be held virtually as have all such discussions since last year. OPEC+ last year agreed record output cuts of almost 10 million barrels per day (bpd) to cope with a pandemic-induced slump in demand, curbs which have been gradually relaxed since then and now stand at about 5.8 million bpd.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2021.

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