OPEC, Allies Agree to Pump More Oil, Shrugging Off Omicron

OPEC, Allies Agree to Pump More Oil, Shrugging Off Omicron

OPEC and a group of Russia-led oil producers agreed to continue pumping more crude, according to people familiar with the decision, betting that a global surge in cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 won’t have the sort of devastating effect on demand as previous waves of the virus.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and a group of non-OPEC producing countries led by Russia said Tuesday they would raise their collective production by another 400,000 barrels a day in February. The group agreed last year to boost output in such increments each month until production reaches its pre-pandemic levels, but reviews that policy every month.