{"id":43423,"date":"2026-03-11T18:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=43423"},"modified":"2026-03-11T18:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:04:26","slug":"opec-confirms-big-saudi-oil-production-hike-ahead-of-iran-war-holds-forecasts-steady","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=43423","title":{"rendered":"OPEC confirms big Saudi oil production hike ahead of Iran war, holds forecasts steady"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia sharply increased oil production in February ahead of US and Israeli strikes on Iran and kept its forecasts for relatively strong global oil demand growth this year.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia \u200bboosted output and exports as part of a contingency plan in case any US \u200bstrike on Iran disrupted Middle East supplies, sources familiar with the plan said \u2060in February. The attack came on February 28 and the ensuing conflict has disrupted oil \u200bexports, forced production stoppages and sent prices soaring.<\/p>\n<p>OPEC, in a monthly report on its website, said \u200bthat Saudi Arabia told the group its February supply to the market was 10.111 million barrels per day, while production reached 10.882m\u00a0bpd. The kingdom reported January output of 10.10m\u00a0bpd.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia has long intervened \u200bin oil markets, adding barrels during disruptions or curbing output when it sees oversupply. The \u200bFebruary rise echoed a contingency plan last year when it moved more oil to storage, the sources said last \u200cmonth.<\/p>\n<p>OPEC also \u2060said output by the wider OPEC+, which includes\u00a0other producers such as Russia, averaged 42.72m\u00a0bpd in February, up 445,000 bpd from January, citing secondary sources.<\/p>\n<p>Read More: OPEC+ mulls larger oil output boost<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Supply to market&#8221; usually covers exports plus domestic refinery and power-plant use, excluding \u200boil shifted into storage. \u200bAs such, Saudi Arabia&#8217;s \u2060February supply to the market stayed close to its OPEC+ quota, even as production ran well above the target.<\/p>\n<p>OPEC left unchanged its forecast that world \u200boil demand will grow by 1.38m bpd this year. Its \u200b2026 demand estimate \u2060remains higher than those of other analysts, including the International Energy Agency.<\/p>\n<p>Also Read: Oil crisis: Is world better placed than in 1973?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ongoing geopolitical developments warrant close monitoring, although their impact, if any, on the growth forecast may be too early to determine,&#8221; OPEC said \u2060in \u200bthe report, referring to economic growth.<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi and OPEC increases \u200bin February came despite OPEC+ agreeing to keep output targets steady for the first quarter of the year.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia sharply increased oil production in February ahead of US and Israeli strikes on Iran and kept its forecasts for relatively strong global oil demand growth this year. Saudi Arabia \u200bboosted output and exports as part of a contingency plan in case [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}