Oil declines after OPEC+ agrees to boost production into 2022

Oil declines after OPEC+ agrees to boost production into 2022

Oil fell after OPEC+ agreed to boost production into 2022, resolving an internal dispute that had shaken the alliance.

Global benchmark Brent shed more than 1%, while West Texas Intermediate dipped. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies will add 400,000 barrels a day each month from August until all its halted output has been revived. The deal also gives Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait and Russia higher baselines against which their cuts are measured from May 2022.

The complex pact, announced at the weekend after a spat between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, gives traders a better view of how quickly the cartel will restore the 5.8 million barrels a day it’s still withholding, since making deep cuts last year in the initial stages of the pandemic. It also resolves longstanding grievances that tested the unity of the alliance.