London (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – During a Sunday meeting, eight OPEC+ nations agreed to increase oil output by 548,000 barrels per day in September, according to three OPEC+ sources. The group is scheduled to hold its next meeting on September 7, one of the sources added, Reuters reported.
OPEC+ has tentatively agreed to a plan to increase oil production by 548,000 barrels daily starting in September, due to growing concerns over potential supply disruptions related to Russia.
Earlier, it was stated that a decision is coming during a virtual meeting that is to start at 1100 GMT, as U.S. pressure on India to stop buying Russian oil ramped up as part of Washington’s overall strategy to push Moscow toward peace talks with Ukraine.
OPEC+ has 23 oil-producing member countries and 13 member countries of OPEC, and 10 oil-producing non-member countries.OPEC has 13 members: Algeria, Angola (effective by 2024), Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Venezuela. OPEC+ has the following 10 non-OPEC members: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, South Sudan, and Sudan.
Why is OPEC+ increasing oil production in September?
OPEC+ controls about 50% of the oil in the world. During the past few years, they have been decreasing production to boost prices; however, this year, they decided to change their strategy and began to increase production, which was also partly due to the urging of U.S. President Donald Trump for OPEC to increase production.
Eight OPEC+ members started increasing output in April with a small rise of 138,000 bpd. This was followed by larger-than-expected increases of 411,000 bpd in May, June, and July, and a further increase of 548,000 bpd in August.
Oil prices have stayed high, with Brent crude closing close to $70 a barrel on Friday, up from a low of nearly $58 in April 2025. OPEC+ has stated that strong market fundamentals justify the quicker increases in production.
What impact could rising output have on prices?
If the group endorses the 548,000-bpd increase in September, then it will have entirely undone the production cut of 2.2 million bpd from earlier times and the UAE will be allowed to raise its production by an additional 300,000 bpd.
OPEC+ continues to enforce a voluntary cut of around 1.65 million bpd of its eight members with a 2-million-bpd cut for all members, which expires at the end of 2026.
