OPEC+ to Choose Between Gradual Output Hikes or Keeping Cuts - Bloomberg

OPEC+ to Choose Between Gradual Output Hikes or Keeping Cuts - Bloomberg

The OPEC+ meeting on Thursday will discuss whether to resume a monthly schedule of modest and gradual production increases or maintain current output cuts, according to a delegate.

The choice between those two options could still go either way, the delegate said, asking not to be named because the information wasn’t public. Even if OPEC+ decided to resume phased increases, it would review each step every month, allowing it to hit pause if oil demand growth were to disappoint, the delegate said.

Many OPEC-watchers had been expecting the group to roll over its production quotas for at least one month, so any deviation from that could be bearish. Brent crude fluctuated in London, trading at $63.62 a barrel as of 1:55 p.m.

The cartel agreed in December to a monthly schedule of gradual output adjustments of as much as 500,000 barrels a day for the next three months, but after one collective supply hike in January it refrained from making any more due to doubts about the strength of demand. Now, there are growing internal and external pressures for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to pump more oil.