Opec+ members agree to delay output increase

Opec+ members have agreed to delay a plan to start increasing output by two months to December, a delegate source told Argus.

Eight members of the group — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — had been preparing to start returning 2.2mn b/d of voluntary crude output cuts from October over a 12-month period, as agreed in June.

The move follows a steep fall in oil prices in recent days after worse than expected economic data in China and the US, and despite an ongoing oil blockade in Libya.

By Aydin Calik, Nader Itayim and Bachar Halabi