Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Russia and other oil producers decide on Tuesday whether to increase their supply by 400,000 barrels per day in February, according to the plan launched to gradually reach the pre-crisis level caused by the pandemic, EFE reports.

As confirmed to EFE by sources from the OPEC secretariat, the decision will be taken in a ministerial teleconference of the group of 23 countries, convened on Tuesday, at 13:00 GMT.

Earlier, the 13 OPEC ministers attended a virtual meeting on Monday afternoon, focusing on the nomination of a possible successor to the organization’s current secretary general, Nigerian Mohamed Barkindo, whose term expires at the end of July 2022.

The latest developments in the world oil market will be studied in two internal committees, one technical (Monday) and one ministerial (Tuesday), whose analysis will be taken into account in the OPEC+ decision (OPEC and allies), according to Agerpres.

According to analysts, this alliance led by Saudi Arabia and Russia is expected to give the green light for the next phase of the plan adopted in July 2021, which provides for monthly increases of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) until September 2022.

The aim is to bring back to the market the barrels they still keep underground, following the large reduction of 9.7 million barrels per day (mbpd), which they decided in April 2020 to compensate for the historic decline in demand for energy, caused by mobility restrictions, adopted to slow the spread of coronavirus.

At the last virtual meeting, on December 2, 2021, OPEC+ confirmed the increase for January, so that the official ceiling of joint production rose from 40,094 to 40,494 mbpd. Of this volume, 24,554 mbpd corresponds to OPEC (excluding Venezuela, Iran and Libya) and 15.94 mbpd to the allies group.