The so-called OPEC+ group of oil producing nations, including Russia, “believe oil markets do not need more oil than they plan to release in the coming months, despite U.S. pressure to add supplies to check an oil price rise,” a report in Reuters said.
Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden urged the OPEC+ group to boost oil output to tackle rising gasoline prices in the United States that the administration sees as a threat to economic growth after the pandemic year.
The price of oil has risen 35% this year after the Saudi-led OPEC+ throttled back production last year with deep cuts to reduce a glut in oil around the world and stabilize prices. OPEC+ agreed in July of this year to boost output again by 400,000 barrels per day a month starting in August until its current oil output reductions of 5.8 million bpd are fully phased out, according to Reuters.
Gasoline prices have risen about $1 a gallon in the U.S. since last year.
The OPEC+ group believes that this increased production would be enough to meet demand, the Reuters report said, which cited four unnamed sources.
But the specter of a looming resurgence of the Coronavirus is causing concern in the market. The IEA last week said that rising demand for crude oil reversed course in July, and was expected to increase at a slower rate over the rest of 2021 because of surging COVID-19 infections from the Delta variant, which may affect demand.
The Biden administration has recently come under some scrutiny for simultaneously demanding oil-producing nations pump more crude while also pledging to fight climate change.
