By Alex Lawler, Olesya Astakhova and Dmitry Zhdannikov
LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) -OPEC+ could delay a planned hike in oil production scheduled to take effect in December by a month or more, three sources told Reuters on Wednesday, citing concern about soft oil demand and rising supply.
The 180,000 barrels per day hike in December, which is due to come from eight members of OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, plus Russia and other allies, was already delayed from October amid falling prices.
But oil prices remain under pressure in part from weak demand data, raising concern in OPEC+ about adding more supply. A decision to delay the increase could come as soon as early as next week, two of the sources said.
“The December hike could be postponed as the market is not healthy enough,” one of the sources said.
The prospect of a further delay in OPEC+’s increase helped lift oil prices by 2% on Wednesday. Even so, Brent crude is trading around $72 a barrel, not far above its lows for the year reached in September.
OPEC and the Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Two of the sources, who are people familiar with OPEC+ talks, said the December increase could be delayed for a month at least, while the third, an OPEC+ delegate, did not specify a time frame. All declined to be identified by name.
The planned hike of 180,000 bpd is a fraction of the 5.86 million bpd of output OPEC+ is holding back, equal to about 5.7% of global demand, to support the market due to uncertainty about the demand outlook and rising supply outside the group.
The December increase is due to come from the eight OPEC+ members who agreed in September to start gradually unwinding the group’s most recent layer of output cuts – a cut of 2.2 million bpd – from December 2024 into next year.
The remaining cuts of 3.66 million bpd, agreed in earlier steps, will remain in place until the end of 2025.
OPEC+ ministers hold a full meeting of the group to decide policy on Dec. 1.
(Reporting by Alex Lawler, Olesya Astakhova and Dmitry Zhdannikov, additional reporting by Maha El Dahan, editing by Tomasz Janowski and David Evans)
