After the voluntary cuts in oil production announced at a meeting in November, OPEC+ countries will for now take a wait-and-see approach against the backdrop of stable prices. At the same time, proposals for new measures to reduce production will be made, but will remain only verbal interventions, since decisions on new cuts may meet resistance within OPEC+, experts interviewed by TASS said, Report informs.

At a meeting on November 30, 2023, several OPEC+ countries decided on additional voluntary cuts for the first quarter of 2024, totaling 2.2 million barrels per day.

According to a representative of the Russian Institute of Energy and Finance, Sergey Kondratyev, OPEC+ countries are now in a difficult situation. He noted that the alliance members have demonstrated their influence on the market and shown that they can stabilize the situation, but at the same time they are close to being trapped in the 1980s, reducing production and making room in the market for other producers.

“I think that proposals to reduce quotas will definitely be heard, but I’m not sure that they will be really feasible. Opposition to a new reduction within OPEC+ is already impressive and will only grow. Therefore, I think that now we should expect more verbal interventions,” the expert said.

Finam analyst Nikolai Dudchenko noted that new oil production cuts by OPEC+ may only be necessary if the price drops even more strongly.

“As long as the oil price is stable, OPEC+ will most likely adopt a wait-and-see attitude,” he said.

In turn, Stanislav Mitrakhovich, a leading expert at the National Energy Security Foundation, and a researcher at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, expects new steps to limit oil production from OPEC+ at the beginning of 2024. The expert emphasized that the November decisions of the alliance did not impress the market.

“OPEC+, in my opinion, will have to meet at the very beginning of 2024. I do not rule out that when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the UAE and Saudi Arabia, perhaps the parameters of the new deal were also tentatively tested there. I think that such a deal will most likely happen, and it will be at the beginning of the year,” said Mitrakhovich.