OPEC agreed to leave most of their existing oil production cuts in place, excepting Russia and Kazakhstan

Vienna, March 5 - Neftegaz.RU. The 14^th Meeting of OPEC+ took place via video conference on March 4, 2021 under the Chairmanship of Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy Abdulaziz bin Salman and Co-Chair Alexander Novak, Russian Deputy Prime Minister.

Abdulaziz bin Salman said at the beginning of the meeting:

• The right course of action is to keep our powder dry
• At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, I would once again urge caution and vigilance
• Let us be certain that the glimmer we see ahead is not the headlight of an oncoming express train

During the meeting, the parties discussed whether to restore as much as 1.5 million barrels a day (bpd) of output.
But after all, were agreed to hold steady at current levels, with the exception of Russia and Kazakhstan.
Both countries will be allowed to increase production by 130 000 bpd of oil and 20 thousand bpd respectively.

Crude futures have now recovered all the ground lost during the early months of the pandemic.
Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, jumped 5% on the news above $67 per barrel.

In January OPEC’s de facto leader Saudi Arabia decided to cut its oil production by 1 million bpd, to about 8.1 million pbd.
That cut had been scheduled to expire in April, but Saudi officials said they would continue the voluntary production through April.

With U.S. President Joe Biden now in office, analysts have said Washington will play a much less active role in trying to influence OPEC's policies.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki made no direct comment about the OPEC decision when asked on March 4.


Since the April 2020 meeting, OPEC+ countries had withheld 2.3 billion bpd of oil by end of January 2021, accelerating the oil market rebalancing.