OPEC+ announces sharp increase in July oil production
Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other key OPEC+ members announced on Saturday a huge increase in crude production for July.
They will produce an additional 411,000 barrels a day -- the same target set for May and then June -- according to a statement, which is more than three times greater than the group had previously planned.
In recent years the 22-nation group had agreed to daily reductions of 2.2 million barrels with the aim of boosting prices.
But in early 2025, leading members of the group known as the "Voluntary Eight", or V8, decided on the gradual output increase and subsequently began to accelerate the pace.
The moves have resulted in oil prices plummeting to around $60 per barrel, the lowest level in four years.
- Trump pressure -
OPEC+ "struck three times: (the output target for) May was a warning, June a confirmation and July a warning shot", Rystad Energy analyst Jorge Leon told AFP.
"The scale of the production increase reflects more than just internal supply dynamics," he said. "This is a strategic adjustment with geopolitical aims: Saudi Arabia seems to be bowing to Donald Trump's requests."
Shortly after taking office, the US president called on Riyadh to ramp up production in order to bring down oil prices, meaning cheaper prices at the pump for American consumers.
Saturday's decision comes after a meeting of all OPEC ministers on Wednesday, where the alliance's collective production policy was reaffirmed.
The decision is officially justified by "healthy market fundamentals" covering oil reserves and structural demand growth during coming months.
- Riyadh 'angry' -
But markets have met this view with scepticism amid concerns about demand and a trade war launched by the United States.
Analysts see several possible motivations for the production hikes, one of them being Saudi Arabia and others penalising members for not keeping to their quotas under the cuts first agreed in 2022.
The increase is all the more likely due to "the latest statements of Kazakh Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov, who has apparently already informed OPEC that his country will not reduce production," said Thu Lan Nguyen, an analyst at Commerzbank.
"Saudi Arabia is angry with Kazakhstan", which is seen as one of the main laggards, and which "produced 300,000 barrels per day more than its quota," said Bjarne Schieldrop, an analyst at SEB.
Analysts meanwhile do not foresee a plunge in oil prices when markets open Monday as the announcement was largely anticipated, instead resulting in a "moderate" reaction.
On Friday, the benchmark Brent crude futures price had settled at $62.61 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate was at $60.79.
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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Hamas accused of brutal crackdown on protesters in Gaza
Hanging from the tarpaulin walls of Amal Ashraf Al Shafa'a's tent are three posters showing the faces of three young men. She does not need those photos to remind her of the immense loss her family has experienced during the war in Gaza. But in the midst of the chaos and destruction they take pride of place in her makeshift home in the territory's north. "I lost three of my sons and now they have left behind orphans," she told 7.30. With her grief looming over her Amal took to the streets alongside hundreds of other Palestinians to rail against Hamas in the days after Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza. The March demonstrations have been described as the largest anti-Hamas rallies since the war in Gaza began, following Hamas' deadly attacks on October 7, 2023. Palestinians expressed their anguish over the immeasurable devastation wrought by Israeli forces during the war, but laid blame at the feet of Hamas for allowing it to continue. "Out Hamas, out!" the protesters chanted. One man, Rafed Rafed Mohammed Atta Al-Radi, was in the crowd as the demonstration erupted. "We are asking Hamas to leave Gaza today, we won't wait any longer," he told the ABC. "We want Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to rule Gaza. "We want him to govern Gaza because Hamas is destroying the people." Despite battling cancer and needing urgent surgery, Amal said she felt she had to join the protest. "I want to shout, 'no to war, no to war'. Many are talking against the war and nothing happens. "I support peaceful demonstrations asking for the end of the war, it is not wrong. "We ask from the government that will rule to bring safety, security. Our children are hungry — we are very tired." Since the protests broke out there have been reports of deadly reprisals against those who took to the streets. Amnesty International said it had documented "a disturbing pattern of threats, intimidation and harassment, including interrogations and beatings by Hamas-run security forces against individuals exercising their right to peaceful protest". "It is abhorrent and shameful that while Palestinians in Gaza are enduring atrocities at the hands of Israel, Hamas authorities are further exacerbating their suffering by ramping up threats and intimidation against people simply for saying 'we want to live'," Erika Guevara-Rosas, Senior Director for Research, Advocacy, Policy and Campaigns at Amnesty International, said. The family of one man, 22-year-old Odai Al-Rubai, said he was abducted and tortured for hours by Hamas before his body was dumped outside the family home. "We are not opposed to resistance, we are opposed to the war itself," Amal said. Hamas has a reputation for ruling Gaza with an iron fist. In early May it announced it had executed six people and shot another 13 in the legs for alleged looting, and last week killed another four. "A warning has been issued — those who ignore it bear full responsibility," the group said. "Let's not forget that Hamas as a movement, as a religious movement — and it's a political religious movement actually — has its own ideology, its own world view and its own way to do things in terms of culture, in terms of social life, and sometimes in terms of political dissent," Dr Hasan Ayoub, assistant professor of politics at An-Najah University in the West Bank, told 7.30. "Yes, Hamas at some points in Gaza, they practiced their own, let me call it, non-democratic, coercive tactics against political dissent." In recent weeks the Committee to Protect Journalists has published testimony of journalists in Gaza being threatened and assaulted by Hamas for covering protests against the militant group. 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Israel has repeatedly said its war in Gaza is against Hamas, and not the Palestinian people. Although the devastating death toll, with more than 54,000 Palestinians now dead, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, showed the heavy civilian cost of the conflict and has led to serious accusations against the Israeli military of indiscriminate bombing and shelling of the strip. Israel resumed its bombardment of Gaza to, in its words, pressure Hamas to release the remaining 58 hostages still held captive — only 21 of whom are believed to still be alive. Negotiations on another ceasefire and hostage deal have repeatedly stalled, with Hamas accusing Israel of refusing to commit to steps to formally declare an end to the war and withdraw its military from large swathes of Gaza it now controls. A red line in negotiations for Hamas has been demands for the militant group to lay down its weapons — something it insisted would allow Israel to renege on any commitment to end the conflict. For Hamada Alza'anoun, the desperate situation facing his family and his people prompted him to join the protests. Picking through the rubble of his former home, destroyed by Israeli bombs, he said Hamas' elite benefited from the war. "Even before the war, their actions were driven solely by the needs of their own supporters, while the rest of us were left without benefit — the only ones who gained were those aligned with them. "As Palestinians, especially in Gaza, we are not against the resistance and we will never be against the resistance. However, during this war we stood against Hamas' policies." Hamada said his house was not the only thing he had lost in the war. Like so many other Palestinians, numerous members of his family have been killed. He feared Hamas' approach to the war, and negotiations to bring about a ceasefire, meant the risk of losing his own life was growing by the hour. "Regardless of conditions, we want the war to end. Gaza people love life. 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The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank wants to unify the two occupied territories under its leadership — something Israel has said should never happen. One of the leading Palestinian opposition politicians said the PA would need significant reform if it was to ever take control of Gaza, and the leading Fatah party would need to allow change. Last year the various Palestinian factions all signed a declaration in Beijing about the future governance of Gaza once the war ended. "They told us that they are ready to accept a national consensus government, which would mainly consist of independents, but a government that would be respected and accepted by all Palestinian parties," Palestinian National Initiative leader Mustafa Barghouti told 7.30. "We concluded that agreement, we signed it — Hamas signed it, Fatah signed it, everybody signed it." Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas has been president of the Palestinian Authority since 2005, and elections have not been held since. 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You rarely get a party that gets more than 50 per cent but you have coalitions. "And I think that's also what we need in Palestine." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
West Australian
2 hours ago
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SBS News In Easy English 2 June 2025
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