Precise Investors Editorial Team
Brent crude closed on Friday near $63 a barrel, down 15% this year
OPEC+ agreed to leave oil output levels unchanged for the first quarter of 2026 at its meetings on Sunday as the group slows down its push to regain market share amid fears of a looming supply glut.
The meeting of OPEC+, which pumps half of the world’s oil, comes during a renewed US effort to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, which could add to oil supply.
Brent crude closed on Friday near $63 a barrel, down 15% this year.
The message from the group was clear: stability outweighs ambition at a time when the market outlook is deteriorating rapidly, said Jorge Leon, a former OPEC official who now works as head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy.
Eight OPEC+ members have paused oil output hikes for the first quarter of 2026 after releasing some 2.9 million barrels per day into the market since April 2025, and Sunday’s meeting reaffirmed that decision, OPEC said in a statement.
OPEC+ still has nearly 3.24 million bpd of output cuts in place, representing nearly 3% of global demand. The Sunday meetings did not alter those.
These comprise a 2 million bpd oil output cut by most members which is in place until the end of 2026, and the remaining 1.24 million bpd of a 1.65 million bpd reduction that the eight members started to return to the market in October.
OPEC said the OPEC+ group had approved a mechanism to assess members’ maximum production capacity to be used for setting output baselines from 2027, against which members’ output targets are set.
Some countries have placed sanctions on Russia, Iran and Venezuela, which are OPEC+ members.
OPEC+ has been discussing the production capacity and quotas issue for years and it has proved difficult because some members such as the United Arab Emirates have increased capacity and want higher quotas.
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