After a very rough start to the summer, the ranks have tightened for the start of the school year. Wednesday, September 1 in the afternoon, was the day of a ministerial meeting by videoconference for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a collective of thirteen members under the leadership of Saudi Arabia, as well as for ten other countries led by Russia; cumulatively, about half of the production in the world, and more of reserves.
This time, a press release fell in less than an hour. Quick communication to display a found unit, at least from the front.
The informal alliance, known as OPEC +, maintains its current course. The one adopted on July 18 with difficulty, after the cancellation, against a background of internal disagreements, of the meeting scheduled for July 5. Since August, the cartel has produced an additional 400,000 barrels per day each month. The strategy was renewed as such at least for October.
This reopening of the floodgates remains timid. Due to the health crisis and its impact on economic activity, OPEC + continues to keep more than 5 million barrels per day underground. These restrictions, initially scheduled until April 2022, are now expected to last until December of the same year.
At the height of the recession due to Covid-19, the alliance had gone so far as to withdraw 9.7 million daily barrels from the market for the months of May and June 2020. That is to say about 10% of world production, which had , in fact, exceeded the 100 million barrels mark before the pandemic.