OPEC’s Oil Output In May Was Lower Than Planned: Here’s Why

According to the data published by OPEC, the cartel increased its production output by 154,000 barrels a day, despite announcing plans to improve it by 411,000 barrels during the month.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) produced less crude oil in May than its laid out plans.

According to the data published by OPEC, the cartel increased its production output by 154,000 barrels a day, despite announcing plans to improve it by 411,000 barrels during the month.

Meanwhile, a cool-down in crude oil prices dragged down ETFs on Monday.

The United States Oil Fund LP (USO) fell 1.75%, while the ProShares Ultra Bloomberg Crude Oil (UCO) was down 2.07% at the time of writing.

A Bloomberg report identified that the reason for the lower-than-planned output increase was two OPEC members, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, and one OPEC+ member, Russia, compensating for overproduction during the previous months.

Kazakhstan, an OPEC+ member, continued to exceed its quota yet again. Despite cutting output by 21,000 barrels, the country’s production in May stood at 1.8 million barrels, exceeding its May quota by more than 300,000 barrels.

OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais said that the cartel does not need to take any immediate action as oil supplies have not been impacted yet due to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.

Across the 22-nation group, May oil output stood at 41.23 million barrels per day, an increase of 180,000 barrels over the previous month.

OPEC expects the global oil demand and supply to be relatively stable, despite the Israel-Iran conflict. The wider OPEC+ group will hold a meeting in July to consider another round of production hikes in August.

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