OPEC countries underfulfill oil production recovery plan

OPEC countries increased oil production by 153,000 barrels per day, to 28.648 million barrels, in April 2022, Report informs referring to the May OPEC report.

The countries of the Vienna Agreement, also known as the OPEC+ alliance, have been reducing oil production since May 2020, but since the beginning of last year, they have been gradually restoring it. So, since August last year, they can increase daily production by 400,000 barrels per month, such a plan is valid until May of this year inclusive. However, countries are not always able to restore production at a given pace. Thus, 10 OPEC countries participating in the agreement account for 254,000 barrels per day in this quota. In May, they were able to increase daily oil production by 224,000, to 24.464 million barrels, while in March they managed to restore oil production by only 79,000 barrels, to 24.24 million barrels per day.

According to the report, in April, oil production in Saudi Arabia (the largest oil producer in OPEC) amounted to 10.346 million barrels per day instead of 10.436 million barrels per day possible according to the schedule. Kuwait increased daily production by 21,000 barrels to 2.662 million, which is slightly below the allowed level (2.665 million barrels). The UAE also increased production - by 36,000 barrels per day, to 3.015 million, and Iraq by 103,000 barrels, to 4.405 million barrels, Algeria, Angola, Congo and Equatorial Guinea slightly increased the production of crude. At the same time, the terms of the OPEC+ deal to reduce oil production in April were fulfilled by 162% of the plan against 151% a month earlier.