OPEC Plus Agrees To Ramp Up Production By 500,000 Barrels Per Day Starting January, Ending Bitter Standoff In Bid To Save Oil Prices

OPEC Plus Agrees To Ramp Up Production By 500,000 Barrels Per Day Starting January, Ending Bitter Standoff In Bid To Save Oil Prices

Topline

After days of disagreement, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and a group of Russia-led oil producers finally agreed to increase output by 500,000 barrels a day next month, the Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday—a modest uptick that's intended to help prop up oil prices as producers and investors plan for rising demand driven by positive vaccine news.

Offshore drilling rig in Scotland. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg



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Key Facts





Ending a bitter output standoff that threatened to disband OPEC from its allies, the compromise is just a quarter of what the cartel originally planned for, but it avoids a full-on three-month delay that industry observers expected, Bloomberg reported.





OPEC originally planned to decide the output goals on Monday, but differences between countries forced the cartel to postpone the decision until Thursday; chief among concerns was that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates wanted overproducing countries like Russia and Iraq to lower their output more in the first quarter, delegates told the Wall Street Journal. 







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