OPEC is considering deepening its output cuts to stave off a market slump in the months ahead, but its November crude oil production shows that it is already significantly overcomplying with its committed quotas.
OPEC as a whole pumped 29.65 million b/d last month, according to the latest S&P Global Platts survey of the group’s production.
The 11 members with quotas, including kingpin Saudi Arabia, produced 25.66 million b/d, a 1.18 million b/d cut from their October levels. That is a compliance rate of 145% — 368,000 b/d more than the 812,000 b/d in output reductions that OPEC had agreed to under a supply accord with Russia and nine other non-OPEC allies, who had committed to shoulder 383,000 b/d in cuts.
The data indicates that if a proposal to increase the OPEC+ coalition increases its total cuts by an additional 400,000 b/d, as Iraq has proposed, OPEC would be already most of the way there on its own, if the group kept its production steady.
The coalition meets Thursday and Friday in Vienna to discuss the future of the agreement, which expires in March. Not all members appear on board with deepening the cuts, with many preferring an extension at the same quotas.