By Radarr Africa Business Desk
LAGOS, November 2 (Radarr Africa) – OPEC+ producers kept their December oil output targets unchanged at a meeting on Sunday and have paused changes to output policy until next year, with attention now turning to how quotas will be set for 2027, Reuters reported.
The group’s members “have agreed in principle to keep their December production targets unchanged”, according to a report by the Indian news agency ANI carried by The Tribune, which cited Reuters and three unnamed people familiar with the matter. The understanding was reached before an online meeting on Sunday of seven members: Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Oman.
Yahoo Finance reported that OPEC+ held its December output targets steady on Sunday, and a Reuters report on oil markets said no further policy changes were expected until next year.
Gulf producers are increasing exports after months of disruption from the Iran war, but most are still producing below their assigned targets, the report said.
Saudi Arabia increased its crude exports in October from September despite Houthi attacks on its energy infrastructure, according to two of three ship-tracking companies cited by Reuters, which did not name them. Attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz have raised energy and shipping costs. The Rio Times reported on October 24, citing the Washington Institute, that at least 28 merchant ships had been struck near the strait in October and that the institute had counted 113 attacks since February, while the International Maritime Organization had recorded 120 incidents.
OPEC+ finished phasing out a cut of 1.65 million barrels per day (bpd), first agreed in 2023, in September. A separate layer of cuts, of about 2 million bpd, remains in place for most members through the end of 2026, according to the report.
The group kept its targets steady for October and November as well, and earlier this year raised output targets for much of 2026, Reuters reported in a version carried by Business Standard. The agency said sources expect OPEC+ to finish the capacity review in the fourth quarter.
The group is expected to review members’ production capacities in the fourth quarter. That review will set the 2027 baselines used to allocate quotas, and it will inform plans for unwinding the remaining cuts, the report said.
Reuters had reported in July that a pause after September was likely, the Tribune article noted. It said the Tribune had not verified the syndicated feed.
The report named no officials. Its information came from three people with knowledge of the matter who spoke on Saturday, according to the Reuters version carried by Business Standard, which said the decision was due at the online meeting starting at 1200 GMT on Sunday.
The outcome matters for African producers. Algeria is one of the seven members that took part in Sunday’s meeting. Nigeria’s crude and condensate output averaged 1.7 million bpd in August, up from about 1.53 million bpd, The Rio Times reported, citing Nairametrics. The upstream regulator, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, put August output at 1.678 million bpd, the report said.
The Rio Times said the 2026 federal budget was proposed at an oil price of US$64.85 a barrel and output of 1.84 million bpd, and that lawmakers raised the price benchmark to US$75.
