Agencies
Moscow
A mini OPEC+ ministerial meeting next month is unlikely to recommend changing the group’s output policy, including a plan to start unwinding one layer of oil output cuts from October, three sources told Reuters.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, or OPEC+ as the group is known, will hold an online joint ministerial monitoring committee meeting (JMMC) on August 1 to review the market.
One of the three OPEC+ sources, all of whom declined to be identified by name, said the meeting would serve as a "pulse check” for the health of the market. Oil has risen in 2024 and was trading around $85 a barrel on Thursday, finding support from Middle East conflict and falling inventories. Concern about higher for longer interest rates and demand has limited gains this year.
The Saudi government communications office did not immediately return a request for comment. OPEC’s headquarters in Vienna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
OPEC+ is currently cutting output by a total of 5.86 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 5.7 percent of global demand, in a series of steps agreed since late 2022. At its last meeting in June, OPEC+ agreed to extend cuts of 3.66 million bpd by a year until the end of 2025 and to prolong the most recent layer of cuts - a 2.2 million bpd cut by eight members - by three months until the end ofSeptember 2024.