By Alex Lawler, Maha El Dahan, Olesya Astakhova and Ahmad Ghaddar
London (Reuters) – Oil exporters gathered within OPEC+ agreed on Saturday to increase their production by 548,000 additional barrels per day again in August.
OPEC+ countries made this decision while they met for the first time since oil prices jumped – then fell – following Israeli and American attacks against Iran.
The group, which has pumped around half of the world’s oil, has reduced its production since 2022 to support the market. However, he went back to back this year to regain market share and because US President Donald Trump asked him to extract more oil to help maintain fuel prices at a low level.
The increase in production will come from eight member countries of the group: Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Algeria. These eight countries had started to reduce their production by 2.2 million BPJ in April.
The increase in August represents a leap compared to the monthly increases of 411,000 BPJ that OPEC+ had approved for the months of May, June and July, and 138,000 BPJ for the month of April.
OPEC+ has invoked the stability of global economic prospects and the good health of the fundamentals of the market, in particular the low stocks, to justify the circulation of a larger amount of oil.
This acceleration comes after certain members of OPEC+, such as Kazakhstan and Iraq, have exceeded their production objectives, causing the anger of other members who stood for reductions, according to certain sources.
Kazakhe production returned to growth last month and reached a record level.
OPEC+, which brings together the organization of oil exporting countries and its allies, including Russia, wishes to increase its market share in the face of the increase in the supply of rival producers such as the United States, according to some sources.
With the increase in August, OPEC+ will have released 1.918 million BPJ since April, which leaves only 280,000 BPJ to be released from the reduction of 2.2 million BPJ. In addition, OPEC+ has authorized the United Arab Emirates to increase their production by 300,000 BPJ.
The group also pursues other cuts amounting to 3.66 million BPJ. The next meeting of the OPEC+ members’ group will take place on August 3.
( Florence Lève, edited by Kate Entringer)
Copyright © 2025 Thomson Reuters
I have over 8 years of experience working in the news industry. I have worked as a reporter, editor, and now managing editor at 247 News Agency. I am responsible for the day-to-day operations of the news website and overseeing all of the content that is published. I also write a column for the website, covering mostly market news.
