OPEC+ has agreed to delay plans to raise oil output until April from January 2025 and the group will also take one extra year to fully unwind the cuts by the end of 2026, OPEC sources said.

OPEC+, which pumps about half the world's oil, had been planning to start unwinding cuts from October 2024 but a slowdown in global demand and rising output outside the group forced it to postpone the plans on several occasions.

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OPEC+ groups the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia. It started online talks on Dec. 5 at 1100 GMT and talks were still ongoing by 1230 GMT.

Despite the group's supply cuts, global oil benchmark Brent crude has mostly stayed in a $70/bbl to $80/bbl this year and on Dec. 5 traded near $73/bbl, having hit a 2024 low below $69 in September.

OPEC+ members are holding back 5.86 MMbbl/d of output, or about 5.7% of global demand, in a series of steps agreed since 2022 to support the market.

The steps include cuts of 2 MMbbl/d by the whole group, 1.65 MMbbl/d of first stage of voluntary cuts by eight members and another 2.2 MMbbl/d of second stage of voluntary cuts by the same eight members.

On Dec. 5, OPEC agreed to extend the 2 MMbbl/d and the 1.65 MMbbl/d cuts until the end of 2026 from the end of 2025, the sources said.

The gradual unwinding of 2.2 MMbbl/d of cuts will start from April 2025 and will last until September 2026.

The group also agreed to allow the United Arab Emirates to raise output by 300,000 bbl/d from April and until the end of September 2026, instead of the earlier plan to start it in January 2025.

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