Oil Market Changer Decisions of OPEC+

During the 33 meeting of OPEC+, the world’s largest oil cartel, since its establishment in December 2016, important decisions have been made that affected the whole world. In this article, Infinity Galaxy tries to illustrate eight important meetings and decisions by an Infographic.

• December 10, 2016: After two years of oil plunge, 13 OPEC members and 10 major oil-producing countries including Russia formed OPEC+.
• March 2020: OPEC+'s biggest failure due to Russia's opposition to cutting production by 1.5 million barrels
• April 2020: OPEC+ 3-stage agreement to cut production at rock-bottom oil prices. This agreement was valid from May 1, 2020, to April 30, 2022:
      Phase 1: 9.7 m barrels in two months
      Phase 2: 7.7 m barrels in 6 months
      Phase 3: 8.8 m barrels in one year and four months
• January 2021: Controversy over two conflicting strategies and an agreement to increase Russia and Kazakhstan's daily quota by 75,000 barrels and reduce Saudi Arabia's daily quota by 1 m barrels.
• July 2021: The insistence of the UAE to increase the base level of production and the risk of the collapse of OPEC+. Finally, the union members agreed to increase the production base level of some members.
• June 2022: Gradual supply increase by 9.7 m barrels to compensate for the reductions during the Covid-19 pandemic
• August 2022: The 31st OPEC meeting after the first visit of Biden to Saudi Arabia in hope of an increase in production. Due to the war between Russia and Ukraine and the sanctions, the US was trying to replace Saudi Arabia and other countries with Russian oil.
• October 2022: OPEC+ held the 33rd meeting in person after two years of covid pandemic. They decided to reduce production by 2million bpd from November 2022.

According to reports, Russian oil exports have increased despite all the current sanctions. In June and July 2022, Russia became the first oil exporter to China.