Iraq endorses the OPEC+ decision to stick to the existing production deal

Shafaq News/ The undersecretary of Iraq's ministry of oil, Hamed Younes, said that his country upholds OPEC+ group's decision to leave production plan unchanged with a small increase in targets in June.

Following a very short virtual meeting on Thursday, the OPEC+ ministers decided to keep the production plan as-is, continuing the modest monthly increases in nominal production.

"OPEC's specialized research agencies will continue to monitor the global oil market developments and provide technical reports and recommendations for the ministerial meetings," Younes said.

Younes said that OPEC will boost crude oil production in June by 432,000 barrels per day.

This was the third OPEC+ meeting since one of the key members of the alliance, Russia, invaded Ukraine. For a third consecutive month, OPEC's press release on the record short meeting read that "it was noted that continuing oil market fundamentals and the consensus on the outlook pointed to a balanced market."

The meeting "further noted the continuing effects of geopolitical factors and issues related to the ongoing pandemic," OPEC said.