OPEC+ came to an agreement earlier this month to institute record-breaking production cuts of nearly 10 million barrels per day. The production cuts were set to take effect on May 1st, but some members have taken it upon themselves to start earlier. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have both made the decision to start scaling back production to work towards the production cut goal. Saudi Arabia has scaled back production from 12 million barrels per day(bpd) over the weekend to reach its goal of 8.5 million bpd. Kuwait is OPEC’s fourth largest producer and they have also made the decision to start the cuts early. Kuwait’s Oil Minister Khaled Al-Fadhel said that starting the cuts early was because they felt a responsibility to address the market conditions.
While some of the top producers make cuts sooner than expected, it remains to be seen if everyone will honor the agreed upon cuts. Russia has not made any changes as of now, but they are expected to decrease supply to the market. Russia is expected to cut supply through their Baltic and Black Sea ports to the lowest numbers in almost 20 years. Experts are not sure if they will be able to reach the cuts that they agreed to. It remains to be seen if the cuts will be enough in the end and if OPEC+ members will be able to reach the agreed upon production cuts.
