OPEC agrees to increase oil production by 1- mln barrels per day from July 1

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member states Friday agreed at a meeting in Vienna to increase the oil production by one million barrels per day from July 1.

As some of them are not able to increase their production while others are not allowed to make up in their sated, the actual output could be less than the one million barrel target, experts said.

“The group is considering on the overall rather than individually, and I think this is quite an achievement. You don’t see this usually in an organization that everyone is looking at his own interests. I think the fact that collectively this group have reached this conclusion is a testimony that OPEC is caring about the market stability,” said Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, President of OPEC Conference, Energy and Industry Minister of United Arab Emirates.

OPEC member states and other world oil pumpers have jointly cut their production by 1.2 million barrels per day since 2016 to balance the oil market for 18 months.

However, due to the limited productivity of some countries, like Libya and Venezuela, the actual production reduction has overpassed the agreed amount, lifting the oil prices to the maximum of 80 U.S. dollars per barrel from 27 at the end of 2016.