LONDON / MOSCOW, Jan 3 (Reuters) – OPEC and its allies, led by Russia, stand ready to unveil their plans for a gradual increase in oil production of 2 million barrels per day in the coming months ahead according to market conditions, OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo said Sunday.
Barkindo spoke at a meeting of OPEC experts and friends, an organization called OPEC +, according to comments published by OPEC. OPEC + will meet Monday to decide on output policies for February.
Barkindo also said that OPEC now expected global crude oil demand to rise to 95.9 million barrels per day in 2021, or 5.9 million bpd by 2020.
OPEC’s latest forecast in December was lower than the previous forecast of a 6.25 million bpd increase due to the visual impact of pandemic coronavirus infection. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Alex Lawler; Writing by Dmitry Zhdannikov; Editing by Alison Williams)