(Nov 2): Opec+ members are set to sign off on another small output hike for December when they meet online later Sunday, according to delegates.
Key members led by Saudi Arabia are expected to ratify a decision to revive a further roughly 137,000 barrels a day of halted production at the meeting that starts at 5pm Vienna time, the delegates said. The level would maintain the pace of small increases already announced for October and November.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners are drip-feeding the return of 1.65 million barrels a day halted two years ago, after rapidly restarting another layer of production earlier this year. They’re going ahead despite signs that a long-awaited surplus is emerging, and warnings of a bigger glut next year.
The International Energy Agency in Paris predicts that world supplies could exceed demand this quarter by more three million barrels a day, and then balloon to an unprecedented glut next year, at least on paper.
Still, the organisation’s actual output increases have fallen significantly short of the advertised volumes, as some members atone for earlier overproduction and others struggle to pump more, limiting the impact on the market.
