By Jacob Burg

The OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries said on July 5 that it would increase oil production by 548,000 barrels per day (bpd) in August.

This would be an additional acceleration in output increases at the group’s first meeting since oil prices climbed, and then dropped, after Israel and the United States struck Iran’s nuclear facilities last month.

OPEC+ produces roughly half of the planet’s oil and has been curtailing output since 2022 to buoy the market.

However, the group has changed course this year in an effort to recover market share, and after calls from U.S. President Donald Trump to ramp up production to lower gasoline prices.

Eight members of OPEC+, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Kazakhstan, and Algeria, will be responsible for the production boost. The eight have begun to unwind their most recent round of cuts of 2.2 million bpd seen in April.

The increase for August is a further boost from the monthly increases of 411,000 bpd that the group had approved for May, June, and July. The organization had also approved a 138,000 bpd jump for April.

As for why it would begin releasing more oil, OPEC+ cited a stable global economic forecast and healthy market indicators, including shallow oil inventories.

Kazakhstan and Iraq have been producing above their targets, with the former returning to growth in June and matching an all-time high for oil production.

OPEC+ is a consortium that includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 10 additional non-OPEC nations and allies led by Russia, including Kazakhstan and Mexico.

OPEC+ will reach 1.918 million bpd pumped since April with the August increase, leaving only 280,000 bpd to be released from the 2.2 million bpd cut. The group also allowed the United Arab Emirates to surge output by 300,000 bpd.

What amounts to 3.66 million bpd in other layers of oil cuts remain for OPEC+. The eight members that will be responsible for the August increase will meet again on Aug. 3.

OPEC Secretary General Haitham al-Ghais said in early June that there’s no peak in global oil demand on the horizon and that it would take $17.4 trillion in investment in the next few decades to meet that need.

“OPEC’s forecasts are not basically ideology. They are based on data and analysis of data, and they clearly indicate that of oil will remain an integral part of the energy mix,” al-Ghais said, adding that he believed net-zero targets in energy emissions are “unrealistic” and “fixated on deadlines” despite OPEC taking climate change “very, very seriously.”

Reuters and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.