Saudi Arabia will make additional voluntary cuts of 1 million barrels a day to its oil production in an effort to increase prices following a long OPEC+ meeting in Vienna, Financial Times reported.
The 1 million b/d cut will initially be for July but could be extended, Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz said, describing it as a “Saudi lollipop” or sweetener for the group. “We want to just ice the cake with what we have done,” the minister said. “We will do whatever is necessary to bring stability to this market.”
UAE’s Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said UAE will extend its voluntary cut of 144,000 barrels per day until the end of December 2024 in coordination with the OPEC+ deal, which had previously announced voluntary cuts in April.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, OPEC’s de facto leader, made the move as part of a deal in which several weaker African members will have quotas reduced from next year. Russia, the world’s second-largest oil exporter, could also have its production targets lowered, though the group said this was subject to review.
Weaker OPEC members including Nigeria and Angola had already been struggling to hit existing output targets after years of under-investment, and were reluctant to make deeper cuts, according to the report.