The original deal would have allowed increases starting next month. The new pact reflects producers’ concerns that the oil market could fall apart again.
Many of the world’s major oil producers agreed on Saturday to extend the record oil production cuts that have helped bolster oil prices since their collapse in April in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic.
Oil ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, as well as other producers led by Russia, met by video conference on Saturday and reached an agreement to continue cutting 9.7 million barrels a day — or about 10 percent of global output in normal times — through July, two OPEC officials said.
Under the original agreement reached on April 12 by the combined producers’ group, known as OPEC Plus, production was set to increase in steps after June.
The recognition that the deep cuts need to continue for a month or perhaps longer shows that despite the recent surge in oil prices, the large producers remain worried that the oil market could fall apart again.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi oil minister, noted that concern in a speech to the OPEC Plus meeting, which he headed.
“Demand is returning as big oil-consuming countries’ economies emerge from pandemic lockdown,” he said.
