OPEC Plus Meets, With an Output Cut Possible
Officials of OPEC and its major allies will meet Monday via teleconference to decide on new oil production goals amid worries about recent weakness in prices.
Analysts say there is a possibility that the group, known as OPEC Plus, will defy the Biden administration’s calls for more oil production in order to reduce gasoline prices, which included a visit by the president to Riyadh, and instead approve a modest cut in output. Over the last year the group has approved a series of gradual increases as the global economy recovered from the worst of the pandemic.
OPEC officials, led by Saudi Arabia, have expressed alarm at the recent slide in the price of oil; futures for Brent crude, the international benchmark, have fallen from a high of $116 a barrel in June to about $95 a barrel. Many oil ministers would probably prefer to leave production at current levels and wait to see how some uncertainties play out, said a note to clients from Energy Aspects, a research firm, but on the other hand, “they are determined to stop prices from falling too much.”
Two big unknowns currently haunt the market. One is how long renewed Covid lockdowns in China, the world’s largest oil importer, will continue to sap demand there. The second is whether a deal will be reached over Iran’s nuclear program that could eventually unleash substantial volumes of new Iranian oil on the market.
Saudi Arabia, which chairs OPEC Plus, has been reminding the markets recently that it is ready to intervene if it sees a danger of price declines running out of control. Saudi Arabia is also sending a signal to the Biden administration that the kingdom is prepared to take steps, like cutting production, that might pre-empt the downward pressure on oil prices from a nuclear deal with Iran.
Whatever OPEC Plus decides will be more a signal of direction than a firm plan. Oil production quotas of many of the group’s members differ widely from what these countries are actually pumping.
For example, while oil production in Russia, a member of OPEC Plus, has held up better under sanctions than many forecasters predicted, the country fell about one million barrels a day short of its target in July, according to estimates from the International Energy Agency.
As a whole in July, OPEC Plus was nearly 3 million barrels a day short of its combined targets, according to the I.E.A. Such shortfalls are likely to continue in coming months as sanctions tighten on Russia, and as other countries, like Nigeria and Angola, are unable to meet their quotas because of a lack of investment and operational constraints.