OPEC and its allies strike deal for small production increase



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The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies are closing in on a deal to modestly increase their collective oil production to 500,000 barrels a day from next month, people familiar with the matter said.

The deal would mark a compromise between some of the world’s largest producers as they meet later Thursday to formalize a deal.

The compromise bridges differences among producers over whether now is the time to start rolling back cuts they and oil-producing allies agreed to earlier in the year in a bid to stabilize prices. Earlier this week, OPEC tended to recommend keeping existing cuts in place for three more months, according to people familiar with their deliberations. This met with opposition from some MPs who wanted to start pumping again as oil prices started to recover.

This view is shared by Russia, which heads another large bloc of oil producers. OPEC and this Russian-led group known as “OPEC-plus” have acted in concert in recent months to stabilize oil markets after the pandemic shut down swathes of the global economy, causing float demand.

The sanction of a modest increase in production would represent common ground between a Saudi plan to extend the curbs by three months and the group’s initial plan to increase production by 2 million barrels per day in January.

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