Reuters: Expectations That OPEC+ Will Stick to Its Policy Despite The High Demand For Oil

Four sources told Reuters that OPEC and its allies will likely stick to their current policy of gradually increasing oil production, despite an upwardly revised demand forecast in 2022 and in the face of US pressure to raise production at a faster pace.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, meet at 1500 GMT.

The group agreed in July to gradually undo record production cuts by adding 400,000 barrels per day per month to the market.

Ahead of today’s talks, one of the sources said that OPEC+ was likely to keep the deal unchanged.

On Tuesday, OPEC+ experts revised the forecast for oil demand growth in 2022 to 4.2 million barrels per day, up from a previous forecast of 3.28 million barrels per day, which strengthens the argument for increasing production in the future.

The outlook for 2022 appears optimistic based on 2021 data. OPEC+ expects global oil demand to grow by 5.95 million barrels per day in 2021 after a record drop of about nine million barrels per day in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, but demand grew by about three million barrels per day only in the first half of 2021.