Oil futures continued to rise in trade on Thursday, with both benchmarks in 3% rise after the OPEC Plus alliance decided to keep previous plans for a modest increase in production next June.
The partners agreed on a planned increase in production of 432,000 barrels per day for the month of June, respecting the agreement to increase monthly production despite the European Union’s plans to ban imports of Russian oil.
In its third meeting since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, OPEC + decided to continue increasing its production by 432,000 barrels per day, a monthly target agreed last summer.
The decision comes despite repeated calls in recent months by the United States and other oil-consuming countries for a coalition to increase production.
“OPEC + continues to see this as a Western-based problem, not a core procurement problem it should be dealing with,” said Investec’s Callum Macpherson.
To worsen the supply shortage, the European Union proposed a total ban on imports of Russian crude oil within the next six months on Wednesday, which would cut global oil supplies and push prices further. in high.
Russian crude oil production has already fallen by more than 1 million barrels a day since the invasion of Ukraine in response to the lower demand for oil abroad and in the domestic market. Of the 10.1 million barrels per day of crude oil produced by Russia in 2021, it exported more than 45%, or 4.7 million barrels per day. Typically, most of Russia’s crude and condensate oil exports, nearly half of the Russian total, are exported in Europe. For Russia, China and India, major Asian importers are unlikely to close the missing demand gap for Moscow’s exports from Europe.
For the EU, the post in game is that there is simply not enough spare capacity to tap into to replace Russian oil imports.
During the negotiation, i future West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery rose by $ 2.50 per barrel to $ 110.58 per barrel and the price of international benchmark Brent crude for July surpassed $ 113 per barrel, in rise of $ 2.84.
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