Some Opec+ members have agreed to push back by three months, to April, a plan to gradually return 2.2mn b/d of production to the market, delegate sources told Argus.
Eight countries ꟷ Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Oman ꟷ were scheduled to begin unwinding the 2.2mn b/d cut over 12 months, starting from January.
But three delegate sources today said the group will delay the start of this plan to April. The full amount will be returned over 18 months, according to one of the sources.
This would reduce the amount of oil being introduced to the market every month. But the return of this output should, in theory, be partly offset by members who have pledged to compensate for exceeding their production targets this year. Argus calculations show that of the eight countries, only Algeria does not have any overproduction to compensate for. Iraq has the most, followed by Kazakhstan, Russia and Gabon.
