Oil alliance OPEC+ extends crude production agreement into 2025

The influential Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, on Sunday agreed to extend their official crude output agreement into 2025.

The coalition will produce a combined 39.725 million barrels per day next year, according to a table published by the OPEC Secretariat. The figure marks the production levels required of individual members before applying any additional production adjustments and will be affected by the group departure of long-standing OPEC member Angola earlier this January. It also includes an increase in the UAE output by 300,000 barrels per day, which will be phased in gradually starting January 2025 until the end of September next year.

Speaking to CNBC, analysts and OPEC+ delegates had previously signaled a high likelihood that the oil producers' alliance would extend its existing supply cuts.

Until the end of June, OPEC+ producers are performing a combined 5.86 million barrels per day of supply cuts, of which 2 million barrels per day represented unanimous commitments under OPEC group policy that span this year. A subset of the alliance is voluntarily cutting another 1.66 million barrels until the end of 2024, while a second set of 2.2 million barrels per day of voluntary cuts stretch until the end of the second quarter.

The group's attention has shifted toward supply-demand balances amid the seasonal start of the summer driving season and the end of refinery maintenance in the world's largest crude importer, China. Institution views sharply diverge, with OPEC's latest Monthly Oil Market Report of May forecasting a 2.25 million barrel-per-day increase this year. The Paris-based International Energy Agency's Oil Market Report of last month meanwhile points to just a 1.06 million-barrel-per-day demand hike.

This breaking news story is being updated.