Finance
OPEC+ to proceed with planned April oil output hike
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 3, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 3, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 25, 2026
OPEC+ will increase oil output in April by 138,000 barrels per day, influenced by US pressure and market conditions, aiming for stability.
By Ahmad Ghaddar, Olesya Astakhova and Alex Lawler
LONDON (Reuters) -OPEC+ has decided to proceed with a planned April oil output increase, the group said on Monday, a move that follows U.S. President Donald Trump renewing pressure on OPEC and Saudi Arabia to bring down prices.
The increase is the first since 2022 from OPEC+, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and other allies. Oil was trading 2% lower towards $71 a barrel at 1900 GMT.
Eight OPEC+ members that are making the group's most recent layer of output cuts held a virtual meeting on Monday and agreed to proceed with the April increase, OPEC said. The increase is 138,000 barrels per day according to Reuters calculations.
"This gradual increase may be paused or reversed subject to market conditions," OPEC said in a statement. "This flexibility will allow the group to continue to support oil market stability."
Oil has been trading in a range of $70-$82 a barrel in recent weeks in anticipation of major changes to U.S. sanctions on large oil producers Iran, Russia and Venezuela as well as U.S. tariffs on China that could reduce demand.
Trump has renewed pressure on OPEC to bring down prices, which rallied to multi-month highs above $82 a barrel in January after Trump's predecessor Joe Biden slapped new sanctions on Russia.
Since then prices have fallen on hopes Trump would help clinch a peace deal in the war between Russia and Ukraine and boost Russian oil flows. However, his plans to cut Iran's oil exports to zero and the cancellation last week of a Chevron license to operate in Venezuela prevented prices from falling further.
The combination of those bullish and bearish factors made decision-making for April extremely complex, OPEC+ sources have said. They added that Trump's plans for global tariffs could complicate the outlook even further.
OPEC+ has been cutting output by 5.85 million barrels per day, equal to about 5.7% of global supply, agreed in a series of steps since 2022 to support the market.
In December, OPEC+ extended its latest layer of cuts through the first quarter of 2025, pushing back the plan to begin raising output to April. The extension was the latest of several delays last year.
Based on the plan, the gradual unwinding of 2.2 million bpd of cuts - the most recent layer - begins in April with a monthly rise of 138,000 bpd.
(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, Olesya Astakhova, Alex Lawler and Dmitri Zhdannikov, editing by Tomasz Janowski and Nia Williams)
OPEC+ decided to proceed with a planned increase in oil output starting in April, marking the first increase since 2022.
The increase will be 138,000 barrels per day, which is part of a gradual unwinding of previous output cuts.
The decision was influenced by various bullish and bearish factors, including U.S. sanctions on oil producers and market conditions.
Oil prices have been trading in a range of $70-$82 a barrel, fluctuating due to anticipated changes in U.S. sanctions and tariffs.
OPEC+ is currently cutting output by 5.85 million barrels per day, which is about 5.7% of global supply.
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