The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reduced its crude oil production in March, ahead of its planned production increase for May, a new Bloomberg survey showed on Tuesday.
OPEC reduced its crude oil production for March to an average of 27.43 million barrels per day—a reduction of 110,000 bpd from the prior month. The reduction comes as OPEC pushes its members into tighter compliance with their production quotas.
According to the survey, Nigeria saw the largest decrease in production, by 50,000 bpd, to an average of 1.5 million bpd. While it’s the largest production cut of the month, the fire on the Trans-Niger Pipeline likely contributed to the decrease.
Iraq—a chronic laggard with the group’s production cut plans—saw the next largest decline, of 40,000 bpd to 4.15 million bpd, although it is still above its quota of 4 million bpd.
While Iraq and Nigeria saw production decreases, the UAE’s production went in the opposite direction. The UAE increased its production by 30,000 bpd to 3.33 million bpd, well over its quota, according to the survey.
The figures compiled by OPEC, however, show Iraq and the UAE are mostly in compliance.
This week, analysts expect the broader OPEC+ group to increase production quotas for May by 138,000 bpd, following a 138,000 increase in April. The OPEC+ group is expected to meet virtually this week to approve production hikes for May.
Oil prices are still trending down as of Tuesday afternoon, with Brent trading at $74.57 per barrel, down slightly from Monday levels. Prices are up from $71.60 per barrel from the start of March, but down $16 per barrel from this time last year.