The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its non-OPEC allies, known as OPEC+, have decided to increase their output target by 400,000 barrels per day beginning in February.
Due to U.S. pressure to boost supply and no new major COVID-19 restrictions, this move was widely expected.
Global oil markets are widely expected to remain volatile in 2022, owing to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine standoff and ongoing Iranian nuclear talks, which will be closely monitored by OPEC+.
The organization, particularly the world’s largest oil producers, agreed on Tuesday to stick to its planned increase in oil production beginning in February, as energy investors assess the potential impact of rising omicron COVID-19 cases.
The energy alliance, led by OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC leader Russia, is in the process of unwinding record supply cuts of approximately 10 million barrels per day.
The historic production cut was implemented in April 2020 to assist the energy market after the avian flu pandemic slashed demand for crude.
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“Oil prices are still hovering around $80 a barrel, that’s probably higher than what U.S. President Joe Biden wants,” Herman Wang, managing editor of OPEC and Middle East news at S&P Global Platts, told CNBC’s“Street Signs Europe” on Tuesday.
Recall that, Mr Haitham Al-Ghais of Kuwait has been appointed new Secretary-General of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) by a special meeting conducted via videoconference on Monday, 3 January 2022, under the Chairmanship of the Organization’s President, HE Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua.
The OPEC Conference decided by acclamation to appoint Al-Ghais of Kuwait as Secretary-General of the Organization, with effect from 1 August 2022, for three years, based on Article 28 of the OPEC Statute and by the procedure decided at the 182nd Meeting of the Conference on 1 December 2021.
Mr Al-Ghais is now the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s (KPC) Deputy Managing Director for International Marketing. He previously served as Kuwait’s OPEC Governor from 2017 until June 2021. In 2017, he served as Chair of the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC), and thereafter as a Member of the JTC until June 2021.
