RIYADH — Saudi Arabia on Wednesday extended its one million barrel per day (bpd) voluntary crude oil production cut until the end of the year 2023. An official source at the Ministry of Energy announced that the Kingdom would continue with its voluntary oil output cut of one million bpd for the month of November and until the end of the year and that it would review the decision again next month. The Kingdom's production for November and December will be approximately 9 million bpd, the ministry said in a statement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency. "This voluntary cut decision will be reviewed next month to consider deepening the cut or increasing production," the statement said. Saudi Arabia first implemented the additional voluntary cut in July and has since extended it on a monthly basis. The cut adds to 1.66 million barrels per day of other voluntary crude output declines that some members of OPEC have put in place until the end of 2024. The source also explained that this reduction is in addition to the voluntary reduction that the Kingdom had previously announced in April 2023 and which extends until the end of December 2024. Russia also pledged to voluntarily reduce exports by 500,000 barrels per day in August and by 300,000 barrels per day in September. The cuts are described as voluntary because they are outside of OPEC+'s official policy, which commits every nonexempt member to a share of production quotas. The ministry source confirmed that this additional voluntary reduction comes to strengthen the precautionary efforts made by OPEC+ countries with the aim of supporting the stability and balance of oil markets. Last month, Russia announced it would reduce exports by 300,000 bpd until the end of this year. The OPEC+ group, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, is expected to keep production policy unchanged when it meets Wednesday, after Saudi Arabia and Russia extended their production cuts until the end of the year.
