Before OPEC member countries gradually resumed their oil production plans, OPEC had already begun reducing output last month to address market fluctuations. Nigeria and Iraq are the two major oil-reducing countries with significant cuts. Survey data shows that OPEC's daily output decreased by 110,000 barrels, dropping to 27.43 million barrels.
The organization's leaders have repeatedly called on member countries to strictly adhere to production quotas, but some member countries still ignore this requirement. Nevertheless, the OPEC+ alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, is ready to gradually restore idle production capacity and has developed a phased implementation plan to boost crude oil market prices.
Prior to this, U.S. President Donald Trump had publicly called on OPEC to lower oil prices. Some delegates revealed that OPEC leaders have shown increasing impatience with overproduction by some member countries, including Kazakhstan.
The survey also indicates that Nigeria had the largest cut, reducing its daily output by 50,000 barrels to 1.5 million barrels, fully aligning with its quota requirements. Iraq's cut was slightly less than Nigeria's, reducing its daily output by 40,000 barrels to 4.15 million barrels, close to the country's cap. However, Baghdad has still not fully complied with the 4 million barrel cap and has failed to effectively reduce production to compensate for its overproduction.
Meanwhile, the UAE's daily output increased by 30,000 barrels, reaching 3.33 million barrels, continuing to exceed its established cap.
Regarding future market conditions, OPEC+ expects to increase daily output by about 138,000 barrels this month, and this increase is expected to last until the end of 2026. The alliance plans to make further decisions on the production increase plan for May in the coming days, and some delegates stated that the pace of the increase will continue.
