Satisfied with the stability of prices, the OPEC + producing countries agreed on Tuesday to maintain their strategy of gradually returning the supply of crude oil to the market after a ministerial summit advanced by one day.
Read also: Oil worries about Indian demand before OPEC + on Wednesday
As planned in early April, the 23 members of the alliance will therefore increase their production of black gold a little each month from May, explained the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in a press release published on its site. .
"We have examined the situation on the market and once again confirmed the decisions that had been taken a month ago,"
said Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak in charge of Energy, interviewed by the channel. Rossia 24.
"Prices on the market are currently more or less stable (...), we hope that this trend will continue until the end of the year"
, added the leader of the ten allies of the cartel.
Embellished
At the previous summit, the enlarged cartel had decided to increase its current level of production by 350,000 barrels per day in May, then as much in June and finally some 450,000 additional barrels per day in July. OPEC + members leave some seven million barrels underground every day and adjust this volume month after month. The goal is not to flood the market with black gold that it cannot absorb due to the economic damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This decision was expected by the market: the two benchmark crude prices, Brent and WTI, were also quietly continuing their rise which began at the start of the day, of around 1%.
The outlook for crude demand
"has improved considerably in Europe and provided an opportunity (for the producers' club) to stick to the initial plan
,
"
responded Edward Moya, Oanda analyst.
The surprise, however, came from the calendar chosen by the alliance.
The two meetings initially scheduled for Wednesday - the Monitoring Committee of the group's current production reduction agreement (JMMC) and the ministerial summit - were brought together in one Tuesday, held by videoconference, on an impromptu basis.
Concerns about India
Ahead of these negotiations on Tuesday, OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo praised
"the positive trajectory of the world economy"
, likely to support
"the demand for oil in the second half of the year"
. And to quote
"the stimulus measures, progress in vaccination and the
coming
summer season"
, according to a statement posted on the cartel's Twitter account.
Small flat, however, the ministers noted
"an increase in Covid-19 cases in a number of countries, despite vaccination campaigns"
, a
"resurgence that could hamper the recovery of the economy,"
said the press release.
India is not named but it is to her that all eyes are turning at the moment.
The "Indian" variant has in a few days plunged the country into chaos: it recorded Monday a world record of more than 352,000 people infected in a single day, for 2,812 deaths.
Read also: Covid-19: in India, a race against death
"The impact on oil demand is however limited, at least for now, because the government has not imposed national containment but rather regional restrictions
,
"
said ING analysts.
At a peak in 2019 before a decline in 2020 under the effect of the pandemic, India consumed more than 5 million barrels per day, which placed it in third place behind the United States and China, according to figures from oil giant BP.
OPEC + also announced that the next summit of the alliance would be held on June 1, the opportunity
"to examine production levels for July, August and until the end of the year,"
said Alexander Novak.
