Oil-producing countries allied under the OPEC+ banner have agreed to pump more oil in July and August, accommodating months of requests by the United States and others to boost production to cool soaring crude prices that have fed into a cost-of-living crisis amid sky-high inflation.
The OPEC+ cartel said in a June 2 statement that it had agreed to ramp up crude output by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July and a similar amount in August. That’s 216,000 bpd higher than their initial production schedule, which aimed to add 432,000 bpd a month to overall OPEC+ output over three months until September.
The moves come after a long-running campaign led by the United States to persuade OPEC+ to pump more oil in a bid to quell surging crude prices, which have helped push inflation to dizzying heights and sent gasoline prices soaring….