The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC++), led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, confirmed this Sunday that it will keep the level of its crude oil supply stable at least until April, without reacting to the turbulence that may arise from the recent arrest of the president of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduroby USA (USA).
That is the result of a brief teleconference celebrated by the energy ministers and Oil from Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman, according to a statement published on the website of the OPEC+based in Vienna.
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These eight countries are the ones that in 2023 applied voluntary cuts in their pumping to support prices, until between April 2025 they began to gradually reverse these reductions with monthly increases that represented a strategic shift to recover market share that they had lost.
He total increase between April and December it amounted to about 2.9 million barrels of crude oil per day (mbd), which represents about 2.8% of the world production.
The group still has a little more than a million left barrels daily to complete the dismantling of the voluntarily cut volumes (one of 2.2 mbd and another of 1.65 mbd), but in November it decided to “pause” the monthly increases during the first quarter of 2026, a measure that the ministers “reaffirmed” this Sunday.
“Countries will continue to closely monitor and evaluate market conditions and, in their continued efforts to support the stability of the market, reaffirmed the importance of adopting a cautious approach and maintaining full flexibility to continue suspending or reversing additional voluntary adjustments to production,” they highlighted in their statement.
He next meeting telematics to re-study the situation will take place on February 1they added.
Prices down
This Sunday’s meeting barely lasted 10 minutes and the result is what was expected in the international markets of ‘black gold’, where this raw material ended 2025 with a reduction in prices of around 20% annually, due to the perception that supply exceeds demand.
Both the price of Brent crude oila reference in Europe, such as that of oil Texas IntermediateWTI), a benchmark in America, closed 2025 with their greater losses percentages since 2020.
In its first price of 2026, the barrel of Brent ended on Friday at $60.75, more than $20 below the $82.03 reached by the January 15while that of WTI It stood at $57.32.
Thus, last year the opening of the taps of the OPEC++, together with the growth of oil production outside the alliance, mainly from USACanada and Brazil, contributed to the downward trend in ‘petroprices’, counteracting the upward pressure derived from the multiple geopolitical conflicts that directly affect several members of the OPEC++ (OPEC+ and allies).
Silence about Venezuela
As they have been doing for years, the alliance’s ministers focused exclusively on oil policy and avoided making public statements on other issues, such as the situation in Venezuela, one of the founding partners of the alliance. OPEC+after the military intervention of USA in that country the day before, Saturday, to capture Maduro, who is now in a prison in New York.
There was also no reaction to the complaint presented on November 30 by the Government of Venezuela before the alliance’s plenary session, that USA sought to seize the oil reserves of the South American country, by maintaining a military deployment in the Caribbean under the argument of combating drug trafficking.
While the impact of the attack on the caribbean country holder of the largest reserves of oil world, other stresses have had a very moderate effect on the prices of the oil.
These include the recent American intervention in Nigeria (also a partner of the OPEC+) and the threat to also attack Iran (another founding country of the oil organization), as well as Russia’s persistent aggression against Ukraine and the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over Yemen.
Founded in 1960 in Baghdad by Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait, the OPEC+ is today made up of twelve countries.
In 2016the group agreed to cooperate with ten other countries, including Russia, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, creating the alliance OPEC++. EFE
