MARKETS are reacting adversely to the attempts by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and its allies to shore up crude market prices.

To prevent the prices from lowering further, Opec ministers opted to increase their ‘voluntary’ output cut last Thursday. At the ‘virtual’ meeting’, several Opec countries agreed to voluntarily cut oil production by 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of 2024.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, will continue to lead the effort by extending a voluntary production cut of 1m bpd of oil — previously intended to run till the end of December — by at least another three months, until the end of quarter 1, 2024. The kingdom’s production will stay at around 9m bpd until the end of March 2024, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said, citing “an official source from the Ministry of Energy.”

In addition to Saudi Arabia, the following voluntary barrel-per-day production cuts were also announced: Russia by 500,000 (from the erstwhile 300,000 bpd); Iraq by 223,000; the United Emirates by 163,000; Kuwait by 135,000; Kazakhstan by 82,000; Algeria by 51,000 and Oman by 42,000.

The cartel seems unable to influence the crude markets much beyond a certain limit

The 900,000 bpd of additional cuts pledged on Thursday includes a 200,000 bpd reduction in fuel product exports from Moscow. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russia’s voluntary cut would include crude and........

© Dawn Business