OPEC continues to badly undershoot production quotas with the shortfall growing as the monthly quotas rise. Production rose just 40K bpd in April, well short of the 254K increase in production planned. That puts putting compliance at 164% compared to 151% in March.
OPEC meets this Thursday and is expected to add another 200k bpd with a delegate cited by Reuters saying there has been no change to the plan.
Most OPEC members are missing quotas with the most-notable being Iraq and Nigeria. The collective shortfall is about 900k bpd, which virtually offsets the US SPR release.
Oil is lower today after a report cited 'complications' in a planned EU decision to phase out Russian oil by year end. Crude is one of the most-compelling charts out there right now:
