OPEC+ increases production and dumps 1.65 million barrels back early

Saudi Arabia is slashing crude prices again, this time across all grades headed to Asia, and it’s happening quite ￰0￱ Aramco, the kingdom’s state oil company, just dropped the price of its flagship Arab Light crude by $1 per barrel for October shipments, according to a latest pricing sheet. That’s a lot steeper than expected, as Bloomberg’s survey shows that refiners and traders were only betting on a 50-cent cut, not a full ￰1￱ new price premium sits at $2.20 a barrel above the regional benchmark, which is low, especially compared to what buyers were bracing ￰2￱ move comes right after OPEC+, the cartel of oil producers led by Saudi and Russia, announced it’s not backing down on its production hike plan, it’s doing the ￰3￱ the weekend, they locked in a decision to keep ramping up supply through to September 2026, starting with an extra 137,000 barrels per day from ￰4￱ goal is to grab back some of the market share they lost to other global ￰5￱ it all comes as global crude prices continue sliding, with the London Brent having dropped by around 12% so far this year, sitting near $66 a barrel, per data from CNBC.

OPEC+ increases production and dumps 1.65 million barrels back early Moving on, despite talk of oversupply, Saudi and its allies are pushing ahead ￰6￱ was supposed to be 1.65 million barrels per day held off the market until the end of 2026 is now coming back much sooner, and it is a huge change from the typical slow, calculated rollouts the OPEC+ has historically stuck ￰7￱ analysts see oil prices slipping some more, to $62 by ￰8￱ Sachs thinks it could go as low as the low $50s next ￰9￱ OPEC+ isn’t showing signs of hitting the ￰10￱ with the recent production hikes, Western stockpiles haven’t ballooned yet. That’s where most oil pricing benchmarks are ￰11￱ far, there’s no massive glut, but refiners in Asia are still ￰12￱ two straight months of price increases, this price cut might feel like a break.

Still, the margin pressure is real, and there’s fear that demand might weaken as winter kills summer travel demand in the U. S., Europe, and the Middle ￰13￱ smartest crypto minds already read our ￰14￱ in? Join them .