In a surprise move the organization of the petroleum exporting countries OPEC+ has announced major cuts in production.

The 48th Meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) took place via videoconference on Monday, 03 April 2023.

The Meeting noted the following voluntarily production adjustment announced on 2 April 2023 by Saudi Arabia (500 thousand b/d); Iraq (211 thousand b/d); United Arab Emirates (144 thousand b/d); Kuwait (128 thousand b/d); Kazakhstan (78 thousand b/d); Algeria (48 thousand b/d); Oman (40 thousand b/d); and Gabon (8 thousand b/d) starting May until the end of 2023. These will be in addition to the production adjustments decided at the 33rd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting.

The above will be in addition to the announced voluntary adjustment by the Russian Federation of 500 thousand barrels per day until the end of 2023, which will be from the average production levels as assessed by the secondary sources for the month of February 2023.

Accordingly, this will bring the total additional voluntary production adjustments by the above-mentioned countries to 1.66 million b/d.

The Meeting noted that this is a precautionary measure aimed at supporting the stability of the oil market.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: OPEC