Seven OPEC+ Producers Leave December Required Output at 31.01 Million Barrels a Day
Seven OPEC+ producers will keep December’s required output at September levels for a third month, OPEC said on Sunday; their country figures add up to 31.01 million barrels a day.
For the seven governments and the refiners that buy their crude, the decision carries the last month of the year at the level reached after four monthly steps, with no further increase. The next scheduled chance to change course is 29 November, when the seven, the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee and the full OPEC and non-OPEC ministerial meeting are all due to meet. In The Edge’s reading, the larger questions for 2027, including the new production baselines, now point to those meetings; the 1 November statement does not say what, if anything, will change.
Seven countries carry the September table into December
Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman met by videoconference on 1 November to review global market conditions and the outlook. They decided to maintain September 2026 required production for December, the third straight month without a change.
The seven had previously announced additional voluntary adjustments in April and November 2023. They reiterated their collective commitment to full conformity with the Declaration of Cooperation and will keep meeting monthly to review the market.
The December table repeats the country levels published for September, October and November, set out earlier on our pages on the seven OPEC+ producers. Saudi Arabia’s required production stays at 10.478 million barrels a day and Kuwait’s at 2.676 million. Oman’s stands at 841,000 barrels a day.
December required production against June (thousand barrels a day)
| Country | June | Dec | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saudi Arabia | 10,291 | 10,478 | 187 |
| Russia | 9,762 | 9,949 | 187 |
| Iraq | 4,352 | 4,431 | 79 |
| Kuwait | 2,628 | 2,676 | 48 |
| Kazakhstan | 1,599 | 1,628 | 29 |
| Algeria | 989 | 1,007 | 18 |
| Oman | 826 | 841 | 15 |
| Total | 30,447 | 31,010 | 563 |
Country rows from the required production tables for June and December 2026, ranked by December level. The tables print no required production total; totals are sums of the seven rows.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Oman enter December above their June levels
Saudi Arabia’s December level is 187,000 barrels a day higher than in June, a rise of 1.82%. Kuwait’s is 48,000 barrels a day higher, up 1.83%.
Oman’s required production is up 15,000 barrels a day, or 1.82%, over the same months. Across the seven, the rises run from 1.81% for Kazakhstan to 1.92% for Russia.
The group’s total is 1.85% higher than in June. Saudi Arabia and Russia each added 187,000 barrels a day, the two largest increases, while Oman’s 15,000 was the smallest.
The shares set out earlier are unchanged in December. Saudi Arabia accounts for 33.79% of the seven’s total and Kuwait for 8.63%. Together with Oman, the group’s three Gulf Cooperation Council members account for 13.995 million barrels a day, or 45.13% of the total.
As an illustration of what the daily requirements imply, not of actual or forecast output, December’s required level for the seven comes to 961.31 million barrels over the month’s 31 days, by The Edge’s calculation. Saudi Arabia’s share of that is 324.82 million barrels and Kuwait’s 82.96 million.
Oman’s December level comes to 26.07 million barrels. With the same level in October, November and December, the seven’s required production for the fourth quarter adds up to 2.85 billion barrels over 92 days.
The monthly steps stopped after September
Four statements, from May to August, each set an adjustment of 188,000 barrels a day from the additional voluntary adjustments announced in April 2023. They applied to June, July, August and September in turn, a path set out earlier.
The country rows are published in whole thousands of barrels a day, so their sums move by slightly different amounts from one month to the next. Since September the total has not moved.
Required production of the seven by month (thousand barrels a day)
| Month | Total | Change |
|---|---|---|
| June | 30,447 | n.a. |
| July | 30,633 | 186 |
| August | 30,823 | 190 |
| September | 31,010 | 187 |
| October | 31,010 | 0 |
| November | 31,010 | 0 |
| December | 31,010 | 0 |
Sums of the seven country rows in each month’s required production table. Change: against the previous month. n.a.: the May table covered eight countries.
The wording of the statements has also changed. The May, June and July statements said the April 2023 adjustments “may be returned in part or in full” as market conditions evolve, and gradually. They also said the countries kept full flexibility to increase, pause or reverse the phase out of the voluntary adjustments.
The four statements since then, from August to November, do not repeat that language. As in September and October, the latest statement also leaves out the line, last carried in August, on compensating for overproduction since January 2024, a change set out earlier. The compensation period itself was extended in June to the end of December 2026.
The 1 November statement gives no reason for keeping the levels unchanged. It names no figure for what remains of the April 2023 adjustments.
The wider OPEC+ production level runs through December 2026
OPEC and non-OPEC ministers reaffirmed on 7 June the overall crude production level agreed at their 38th meeting. That level runs until 31 December 2026, which makes December the last month of the period. December is also the last month of the compensation period.
The same meeting, their 41st, also affirmed the importance of completing an assessment of maximum sustainable production capacity for every country in the Declaration of Cooperation, to serve as the reference for 2027 production baselines, as set out earlier.
The ministers set their 42nd meeting for 29 November, the same day as the committee’s 69th meeting and the seven’s own next meeting. The committee, which meets every two months, noted overall conformity among participating countries for July and August, as set out earlier.
What to watch:
29 November: the next meeting of the seven OPEC+ countries.
29 November: the 69th meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee.
29 November: the 42nd OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting.
Figures are from OPEC’s statement of 1 November 2026 on the meeting of the seven OPEC+ countries and its December 2026 required production table, OPEC’s statements of 5 April, 3 May, 7 June, 5 July, 2 August, 6 September and 4 October 2026 and their tables, the statement of the 41st OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting of 7 June 2026 and the statement of the 68th Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meeting of 4 October 2026; totals, shares, changes and volumes not attributed to a source are The Edge’s calculations.
Sources: OPEC, The Edge.
