OPEC+ has reportedly chosen to raise its oil output by 100,000 barrels per month in its latest meeting on Wednesday.
The increase is set to cover a mere 86 seconds of international demand, and was described as “so little as to be meaningless,” according to Eurasia Group managing director for energy, climate and sustainability Raad Alkadiri. “As a political gesture, it is almost insulting.”
OPEC+ said in a statement that the “severely limited availability of excess capacity” served to necessitate a lower output, and added that emergency oil stocks had reached their lowest levels in over thirty years.
The organisation also confirmed that OECD commercial oil stocks stood at 2,712 mb in June 2022, coming 163 mb lower than last year and 236 mb beneath the 2015-2019 average.
OPEC+ noted the lack of investment in the oil sector over recent years which had led to atrophied capacity along the upstream, midstream and downstream value chain.
The price of benchmark Brent Crude oil rose to $101 per barrel following the report after a fall to $99 earlier in trading.