OPEC+ panel meeting seen making no policy changes after surprise output hike

An OPEC+ ministerial meeting on Saturday is expected to leave oil output policy unchanged, following this week’s surprise move by eight member countries to accelerate the phasing out of oil cuts by increasing output by 411,000 barrels per day in May.

A meeting of top OPEC+ ministers on Saturday is expected to make no new changes to oil ouptut policy, two delegates told Reuters, after the group's surprise decision this week to raise output further helped send prices crashing to pandemic-level lows. Several ministers from 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) at 1200 GMT. The JMMC, which groups the oil ministers from Saudi Arabia, Russia and other leading producers, usually meets every two months and can make recommendations to change policy. Two sources said on Saturday no new decisions were expected at the meeting. On Thursday, eight OPEC+ countries unexpectedly agreed to speed up their plan to phase out oil output cuts by increasing output by 411,000 barrels per day in May instead of 135,000 bpd, a decision that prompted oil prices to extend sharp losses.

Brent crude prices closed 7 per cent lower at $65.58 a barrel on Friday, their lowest since August 2021, pressured by the OPEC+ decision and trade war fears after US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariff announcement this week.

The May hike is the next increment of a plan agreed by Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Oman to gradually unwind their most recent output cut of 2.2 million bpd, which came into effect this month. OPEC+ also has 3.65 million bpd of other output cuts in place until the end of next year to support the market.