OPEC+ raises oil output for sixth straight month in September

Seven core members of OPEC+ agreed Sunday to raise collective oil output by 188,000 barrels per day starting in September, a sixth consecutive monthly increase that completes the group's rollback of voluntary production cuts first introduced in 2023. The participating countries are Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman, OPEC said in a statement.

That September hike brings to a close the gradual reversal of a 1.65 million barrel-per-day output reduction the group first adopted in 2023, according to CNBC. A separate layer of cuts totaling roughly 2 million barrels per day, introduced by the broader OPEC+ group in 2022, remains in place through the end of the year.

Despite the successive monthly quota increases, much of the additional output has not reached markets. Supply disruptions in Russia, Kazakhstan, and the Gulf region stemming from the Iran and Ukraine conflicts have meant the quota increases have translated into little actual new oil reaching markets. On Saturday, President Trump said he had called off a planned attack on Iran after agreeing to terms that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, according to the Wall Street Journal.

With the 2023 cut reversal now complete, OPEC+ faces its next challenge of deciding whether to begin unwinding additional cuts or hold output steady. CNBC reported that the group's communiqué was silent on what direction production policy would take in the final three months of the year. The seven members are next scheduled to meet on September 6 to determine October production levels, OPEC said.

The alliance is also conducting an assessment of each member's oil production capacity, with the results intended to anchor the baseline figures from which 2027 quotas will be calculated, according to the Wall Street Journal. Negotiations over new quotas are anticipated to be contentious, as several members — Iraq among them — are seeking larger individual allocations commensurate with their expanded capacity.

The United Arab Emirates, which had been part of the seven-country core group managing monthly production, left OPEC in May, stripping the alliance of what had been its third-largest contributor. Iraq has also reportedly threatened to leave unless granted a more generous production allowance.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, closed at $90.12 per barrel, posting an advance of more than 1% on the session. West Texas Intermediate futures rose more than 1% to close at $84.67. For the week as a whole, both contracts lost more than 5%, with the declines beginning Monday as investors grew optimistic that hostilities in the Middle East might wind down.