By: OrePulse

OPEC+ is expected to keep its December oil production quotas unchanged when the group's ministers meet, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Seven members of the group — Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — completed the phased unwinding in September of 1.65 million barrels per day in supply cuts that had been in place since 2023. Since then, those seven have kept their output targets unchanged.

For roughly eight months, the quota increases tied to that unwinding were largely theoretical for some members, as conflict-related disruptions to oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz led several Gulf producers to pump below their official targets earlier this year. Output recovered through August and September as flows through the strait returned to more normal levels, the people said.

Several OPEC+ members in the Gulf are still producing below their assigned quotas, according to the people familiar with the matter. Separately, sanctions-related disruption tied to the war in Ukraine has continued to constrain oil exports from Russia and Kazakhstan.

OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries with Russia and several other non-OPEC producers, coordinates oil output policy across its members to help manage global supply. A separate layer of voluntary production cuts, agreed earlier, remains in place for most OPEC+ members through the end of 2026.

With the 2023 cuts now fully unwound, attention within the group is shifting to negotiations over 2027 production baselines — the reference figures used to calculate each member country's quota — which will shape the group's output levels well beyond the current round of decisions.