OPEC+ postpones production increase by two months following oil price drop.

• According to two anonymous sources, the members of the OPEC+ oil alliance have postponed their plan to increase production by 180,000 barrels per day in October.
• The plan to gradually return 2.2 million barrels per day to the market involved increases.
• The decline of 2.2 million barrels per day was a temporary reduction initiated by only eight members of the OPEC+ alliance.

The OPEC+ oil alliance has postponed plans to increase production by 180,000 barrels per day in October as part of a plan to gradually add 2.2 million barrels per day to the market over the coming months.

According to two anonymous sources from OPEC+, the increase has been postponed by two months.

The decline of 2.2 million barrels per day was a temporary reduction initiated by only eight members of the OPEC+ alliance.

On Thursday, crude futures that had previously declined rose, with the Ice Brent contract for November expiry trading at $73.63 per barrel at 3:29 p.m. London time, up 1% from the previous settlement. Additionally, the front-month October Nymex contract was at $70.17 per barrel, an increase of 1% from the previous close price.

The 2.2-million-barrel-per-day cut, implemented by Algeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, was a voluntary reduction that fell outside of the official policy binding all members of the OPEC+ coalition, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies.

OPEC+ will produce a combined 38 million barrels per day next year, with a subset of members voluntarily curbing their output by an additional 1.7 million barrels per day throughout 2025.

According to an OPEC+ source, the details and timelines of these deals have not been adjusted as a result of the latest talks.

The demand for crude oil from China, the world's second-largest economy and largest importer, has weighed down oil prices due to a sluggish post-Covid-19 recovery. On the supply side, key OPEC+ members Iraq and Kazakhstan have consistently exceeded their monthly production quotas under the alliance's agreement and have submitted plans to reduce their output by September 2025 to offset these excesses.

The ongoing political standoff in Libya has caused uncertainty in the supply-demand fundamentals of the oil market, as outages have affected the country's nearly 1.2-million-barrels-per-day production.