OPEC+ Clinches Compromise on Gradual Easing of Output Cuts - Bloomberg

OPEC+ Clinches Compromise on Gradual Easing of Output Cuts - Bloomberg

OPEC+ agreed to ease oil-output cuts next year after almost a week of fraught negotiations that exposed a new rift at the heart of the cartel.

The group will add 500,000 barrels a day of production to the market in January, and ministers will then hold monthly consultations to decide on the next steps.

That’s a much shorter time frame than OPEC+ usually operates under, and before this week the expectation had been that the group would hold off putting more oil onto the fragile market for another three months.

But the compromise deal avoided a breakdown of OPEC+ unity, which had become a growing risk after days of tense talks exposed a new split between core cartel members, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The meeting postponed by two days and then delayed again on Thursday. And in another sign of tension, Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman didn’t chair the meeting as usual, leaving his Russian counterpart to do it alone.

“It’s very excruciating, it’s very tiring, it’s sometimes very frustrating,” he said of the talks. Still, the oil market is seeing the “light at the end of the tunnel.”