The Opec+ oil cartel said on Sunday it would raise production by a further 547,000 barrels a day from September, fully reversing its nearly two-year-long strategy of propping up prices by holding huge quantities of crude off the market.
The decision marks the end of an agreement that began in January 2024 under which eight members, led by Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, voluntarily cut their daily output by 2.2mn barrels after concerns about the rise of electric vehicles and sluggish oil demand growth in China.
But the cuts, which were initially slated to last for only three months, failed to arrest the downward trend in prices and created internal tensions as the cartel lost market share to increases in production by the US, Brazil and Canada.