The ministers of the OPEC+ countries will hold their next monthly meeting to decide whether to supply the market with additional oil or go within the framework of the decision, Interfax reports.

 First, at 15:00 Moscow time, a meeting of the ministerial monitoring committee will take place, where the co-chairs of the agreement are Russia and Saudi Arabia.  They will then submit their final proposal to all OPEC+ ministers.

 In July, amid the recovery in oil demand, the OPEC+ countries decided to accelerate the increase in oil production – by 400 thousand barrels per day (b/d).  Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who has expressed concerns that a recovery in demand may be fragile amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, said not all countries will be able to ramp up supply.  And already in August the deal was overfulfilled by 119%, and in September – by 115%.

 Oil prices are rising steadily and in excess of $80 a barrel, driving up fuel prices, causing inflation and, as consumers say, hampering economic recovery.

 However, so far the OPEC+ countries have ignored these requests. At the previous meeting, there was a talk about a possible accelerated increase by 800 thousand, and not by 400 thousand b/d, but in the end the decision was made.  Producers, in particular Saudi Arabia, want to make sure that the market needs oil in the long term, because they cannot, once increasing supplies, «turn off the tap» and leave their investments in the ground.

 Meanwhile, many experts and market participants are already talking about a persistent lack of investment in oil production, and producers are talking about the need to look at sources of energy other than oil.