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Oil platform off the Brazilian coast (archive): OPEC+ increases production
Photo: A2609 epa efe Marcelo Sayao/ dpa
The oil cartel Opec + wants to increase its production in the summer much more than in the past few months.
Instead of the additional 430,000 barrels (159 liters each) pumped into the market in June, daily production in July and August is to increase by around 650,000 barrels each, the group announced.
Opec+ justified its decision with the end of lockdowns in important business locations and the seasonally increased demand from refineries.
According to the statement, despite the announced EU embargo on Russian oil, Russia continues to participate in the production agreements.
The Wall Street Journal had previously reported that Opec+ could suspend Russia as a consequence of the Ukraine war.
However, the group did not comment on this.
Apparently, the markets were expecting an even more significant increase in the production volume.
In addition, excluding Russia would probably have enabled even greater production, for example in the United Arab Emirates.
The 13 member countries of Opec, led by Saudi Arabia, and their ten partners had massively curtailed production in the first corona year of 2020 because prices had collapsed due to a lack of demand.
Prices supported by oil embargo
Those times are now over: Oil prices turned positive on Thursday despite the increase in production.
Most recently, a barrel (159 liters) of North Sea Brent cost $117.49, $1.20 more than the day before.
This was partly due to the fact that US crude oil inventories had surprisingly fallen significantly in the past week.
The EU Commission's partial oil embargo had also supported prices.
The sixth sanctions package, which includes the oil embargo, was passed unanimously, with Hungary having recently opposed it.
Only when sanctions were waived against the Russian Orthodox Church leader, Patriarch Kirill, did the country finally agree.
rai/dpa