OPEC+ to proceed with May production hikes, cancels ministerial meeting

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) – The OPEC+ producer group has agreed to stick with plans for gradual crude increases following a meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), while Wednesday's full ministerial meeting has been canceled, according to media reports.

The JMMC typically reviews overall market fundamentals, including the supply/demand balances, inventories and OPEC+ compliance matters, and today's meeting was said to have focused on India.

The coronavirus wave sweeping across India is expected to reduce oil transportation fuels by at least 500,000 barrels per day during May.

But OPEC+ decided to move forward with the cuts which were agreed at the early April meeting, implementing gradual increases of around 2 million bpd between May and July.

Output will increase by 350,000 b/d in May, 350,000 b/d in June, and 440,000 b/d in July.

Saudi Arabia also plans to start unwinding its additional voluntary cut of 1 million bpd.

Brent futures for June were trading at $65.80/barrel in late London trading at (1548GMT), compared to Monday's settle of $66.65/b, having reached an intraday high of $66.45/b on reports OPEC was considering deferring the production increases.

At the same time, June WTI was trading at $62.43,up $0.52/b from Monday's settlement of $661.91/b.

OPEC+ will next meet in early June, according to sources.