By Alex Lawler, Maha El Dahan and Dmitry Zhdannikov
LONDON (Reuters) -OPEC+ will likely agree to further accelerate oil output increases on Saturday at its first meeting since oil prices jumped, and then retreated, following Israeli and U.S. attacks on Iran.
The group, which pumps about half of the world’s oil, has been curtailing production since 2022 to support the market. But it has reversed course this year to regain market share and as U.S. President Donald Trump demanded the group pumped more to help keep gasoline prices lower.
The group may agree to raise output by as much as 550,000 barrels per day in August, up from monthly increases of 411,000 bpd it approved for May, June and July, and 138,000 bpd in April, two sources familiar with the discussions said.
Eight members of the group – Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Kazakhstan and Algeria – are due to meet online on Saturday at 0900 GMT to decide policy for August.
The eight began unwinding their most recent output cut of 2.2 million bpd in April. They then accelerated the hikes in May, June and July, despite the extra supply weighing on crude prices.
The acceleration came after some OPEC+ members, such as Kazakhstan and Iraq, produced above their targets, angering other members that were sticking to cuts.
Kazakh output returned to growth last month and matched an all-time high.
OPEC+, which groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, is looking to expand its market share against the backdrop of growing supplies from other producers like the United States, sources have said.
So far, OPEC+ has announced production increases of 1.37 million bpd between April and July, representing 62% of the production cut of 2.2 million bpd that it is unwinding.
The group still has in place other layers of cuts amounting to 3.66 million bpd.
(Reporting by OPEC Newsroom. Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov. Editing by Mark Potter)
