By Sibel Morrow
Several OPEC+ countries announced Thursday that they have agreed to voluntarily cut oil production by a total of 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of 2024
The additional voluntary cuts announced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, known as OPEC+, include Saudi Arabia by 1 million bpd, Iraq by 223,000 bpd, the United Arab Emirates by 163,000 bpd, Kuwait by 135,000 bpd, Kazakhstan by 82,000 bpd, Algeria by 51,000 bpd and Oman by 42,000 bpd.
Russia will cut 500,000 bpd for the same period from the average export levels of May and June of 2023. It will consist of 300,000 bpd of crude oil and 200,000 bpd of refined products.
The voluntary cuts will be in place from January until March of next year and will be returned gradually subject to market conditions “to support market stability.”
The voluntary cuts will be in addition to the current collective production cuts of 3.6 million bpd reaffirmed during the 36th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting earlier on Thursday that will run until the end of 2024.
The collective output cuts include a 2 million bpd production cut implemented in October 2022 and 1.6 million bpd ongoing since May.