The OPEC nations contributing to a recent deal to restrict oil output produced 31.85 million barrels per day of the fuel in April, according to data released by S&P Global Platts.
The figure matches data from March, meaning the bloc has stabilized output at a level 80,000 bpd less than the promised 31.77 million-barrel quota (without Indonesia).
Saudi Arabia cut production to 9.97 million bpd in April, just below the 10.1 million-barrel restriction it had agreed to in the November deal. Iraq - the second-largest producer in the bloc - boasts output 9,000 barrels above its quota.
Iran kept its output at 3.77 million bpd, below the 3.8 million bpd the country was designated.
"OPEC members can go into their May 25 meeting in Vienna feeling good about their compliance levels," according to Herman Wang, Platts' OPEC specialist. "Even countries, like Iraq and the UAE, which have come in for some criticism over their production levels, moved closer to compliance in April. But an extension to the production cut agreement is far from a done deal, with many details to be negotiated, including cut levels, exemptions and duration, amid an increasingly skeptical market. OPEC still has much to discuss."
Related: All Eyes On Saudi Arabia As OPEC Begins To Unravel
The OPEC deal reduced oil production by 1.2 million bpd in the first half of 2017. Eleven other NOPEC nations agreed to contribute an additional 600,000 barrels in cuts, making the total impact of the deal on the global supply gut 1.8 million bpd.
Oil prices have been devastatingly low for 2.5 years now, causing thousands of job losses and massive budget holes for countries with nationalized fossil fuel industries, which exist popularly in the Middle East, Africa, and South America.
By Zainab Calcuttawala for Oilprice.com
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Zainab Calcuttawala is an American journalist based in Morocco. She completed her undergraduate coursework at the University of Texas at Austin (Hook’em) and reports on… More