OPEC+, a consultative group between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and major non-OPEC oil producing countries such as Russia, decided to allow only a slight increase in production in April, taking into account the uncertainties surrounding the oil market.



Saudi Arabia decided to maintain voluntary production cuts in April.



According to Bloomberg and Reuters on the 4th (local time), the OPEC+ Oil Ministers' meeting held on the video said that Russia and Kazakhstan only allowed an increase in production in April at a'modest' level, and the rest of the member states agreed not to increase production.



In a statement, the OPEC+ Ministerial Meeting said, "It has been agreed to continue the production level in March in April. However, in consideration of seasonal consumption patterns, only Russia and Kazakhstan are exceptions."



In April, Russia and Kazakhstan were allowed to increase production of 130,000 barrels and 20,000 barrels a day, respectively, Reuters quoted sources.



Russia has argued for the need to increase production to prevent oil prices from rising excessively.



Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer, has decided to maintain voluntary production cuts of 1 million barrels per day until April.



Saudi energy minister Abdul Aziz bin Salman said, "We will not be in a hurry to stop voluntary production cuts. We will drag production cuts for more than a month."



OPEC+ held a ministerial meeting again on April 1 and decided to increase production afterwards.



Prior to the meeting, it was observed that there will be an agreement to increase production of 500,000 barrels per day as the market judges that international oil prices are stabilizing enough to allow additional production.



OPEC+ implemented a reduction of 9.7 million barrels a day according to the plan agreed in April last year as a countermeasure against the decrease in demand caused by Corona 19.



Since then, OPEC+ plans to gradually increase production by reducing production scale to 7.7 million barrels a day in August of last year and 5.8 million barrels a day from January this year.



However, at the meeting in December last year, the trend of decline in demand due to the Corona 19 pandemic did not improve significantly, and it was determined that an oversupply situation could be encountered if production of 2 million barrels per day from January this year is increased, and the direction of production was increased by 500,000 barrels. Changed.



Accordingly, OPEC+ decided to reduce the production cut in January from 7.7 million barrels per day to 7.2 million barrels per day and hold meetings every one to two months from January to determine the next month's production.



The oil ministers' meeting in January allowed only the increase in production in Russia and Kazakhstan.



Russia and Kazakhstan decided to increase production by 65,000 and 10,000 barrels per day in February and March respectively.



Saudi Arabia has voluntarily pledged to cut production by an additional 1 million barrels per day in February and March.



Meanwhile, on the news of OPEC+'s decision to withhold production increase, international oil prices surged around 5%.



(Yonhap News/Photo = Getty Image Korea)