by Rania El Gamal, Olesya Astakhova and Ahmad Ghaddar
MOSCOW / DUBAI / LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) – OPEC member countries and their allies, united in OPEC +, agreed on Sunday to increase oil production from August in the face of the increase prices that reached two-and-a-half-year highs against the backdrop of a rebound in the global economy after the coronavirus epidemic.
The organization, which brings together OPEC member countries and allies such as Russia, also reached a key agreement on new production quotas from May 2022 to overcome disagreements between Saudi Arabia and the United States. United Arab Emirates.
Last year, OPEC + cut production by a record 10 million barrels per day (bpd) in the face of slowing demand and a collapse in prices amid the pandemic. The organization has since gradually reopened the floodgates, bringing the drop in production to around 5.8 million bpd.
From August until December 2021, the organization will increase production by an additional 2 million bpd, OPEC said in a statement.
The group also agreed to extend their capping agreement until the end of 2022, instead of April 2022 as planned until then, in order to give themselves more leeway in case the rebound in the economy would be halted by the progression of new variants.
While both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates supported the idea of an immediate increase in production, the Emirates were opposed to the Saudi proposal to extend the caps until December 2022 without raising production quotas.
To overcome this disagreement, OPEC + agreed on new production quotas for several of its members from May 2022, including the emirates, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kuwait and Iraq.
The adjustment will increase supply by 1.63 million bpd from May next year, according to Reuters calculations. (Report Olesya Astakhova, Rania El Gamal, ALex Lawler, Ahmad Ghaddar and Dmitry Zhdannikov; editorial staff Dmitry Zhdannikov; French version Gwénaëlle Barzic)
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