OPEC Crude Oil Output Edges Higher

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries boosted supplies by 150,000 barrels a day last week, with total group output placed at 29.14 million barrels a day.

Nigeria’s Oil output rebounded after a clampdown on theft while other producers in the bloc are sticking to the production curbs agreed late last year to keep global markets in balance.

Also, key members; Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq kept supplies roughly unchanged, with the Saudis pumping 10.48 million barrels a day.

OPEC and its allies, a 23-nation bloc known as OPEC+, agreed to collectively reduce supplies by 2 million barrels a day from November, and then hold steady for the rest of this year.

While the decision initially drew a fierce rebuke from the White House, it appears to have helped stabilize world markets against fears of recession in the US and a shaky economic reopening in China.

Oil futures traded near $83 a barrel in London on Tuesday.

Supplies from the wider OPEC+ coalition are expected to come under pressure after further European Union sanctions came into force last month on member nation Russia, as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine.

However, a panel of ministers from the OPEC+ coalition will hold a monitoring meeting to review production policy on Feb. 1.