What Is OPEC+ and How Does It Control Oil Supply?
What is OPEC+? It is an informal alliance of oil-producing countries made up of the members of OPEC plus a group of major non-OPEC producers, most notably Russia, that coordinate crude oil output targets to influence the global oil market. The alliance began in December 2016 and has since become the single most important forum for managing oil supply. This guide explains how it works, who takes part, what its production cuts mean and where its power ends.
What Is OPEC+? A Simple Definition
OPEC, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, was founded in Baghdad in September 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Its headquarters have been in Vienna since 1965. The aim was to coordinate petroleum policies among producers and stabilise markets.
By the mid-2010s, rapid growth in US shale oil had reduced OPEC’s share of the market, and prices fell sharply. In response, OPEC and a set of non-OPEC producers signed the Declaration of Cooperation in December 2016. The wider group, often called OPEC+, includes countries such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Oman, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Bahrain, Brunei, Sudan and South Sudan. Mexico has taken part with its own special arrangements.
OPEC+ is not a legal entity with a treaty and a secretariat of its own. It works through regular ministerial meetings, supported by OPEC’s Vienna secretariat and technical committees.
How OPEC+ Works Step by Step
The process is easiest to follow as a cycle of meetings, decisions and monitoring.
- Assessment. Ministers and technical staff review oil demand forecasts, inventories and prices, using data from OPEC, the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
- Negotiation. Delegations bargain over the total production level and each country’s share. Saudi Arabia and Russia play the leading roles.
- Quota setting. The group agrees on a required production level for each participating country, measured against an agreed baseline.
- Announcement. The outcome is published after the ministerial meeting, often with a date for the next review.
- Monitoring. A joint committee tracks compliance using secondary sources, such as estimates published by price-reporting agencies, and reports whether members are over or under target.
- Compensation. Members that overproduced are expected to make up the difference with later cuts.
Decisions require consensus, which is one reason negotiations can be long. There are no legal penalties for breaking quotas; the incentive to comply comes from the shared interest in prices and from peer pressure.
Key Types of OPEC+ Production Cuts
The word “cuts” covers several different mechanisms, and headlines often mix them up.
Group-wide quota cuts
The most formal type, in which the whole alliance agrees a lower production target. The record example came in April 2020, when demand collapsed during the pandemic and the group agreed a cut of nearly 10 million barrels per day.
Voluntary cuts
Some countries announce extra reductions on their own, outside the formal group quota. These have been used by Saudi Arabia and several other Gulf and Russian-led producers to add to the headline cut without renegotiating the whole framework.
Phased increases
When the group decides to bring barrels back, it usually does so in monthly steps, with the option to pause or reverse if the market weakens.
Exemptions
Some members have historically been exempt from quotas for political or practical reasons, including Iran, Libya and Venezuela, because their output has been constrained by sanctions or conflict.
OPEC Members and Main OPEC+ Participants
The membership has changed over time. Qatar left OPEC in 2019, Angola left in 2024 and, in April 2026, the United Arab Emirates announced that it would exit both OPEC and the wider alliance with effect from 1 May 2026. Because membership is a moving target, treat any list as a snapshot and confirm the current position on opec.org.
| Group | Countries |
|---|---|
| OPEC members after recent departures | Algeria, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela |
| Main non-OPEC participants | Russia, Kazakhstan, Oman, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Bahrain, Brunei, Sudan, South Sudan, Mexico |
Saudi Arabia is the group’s largest exporter and has the most spare capacity, which gives it a special role as the “swing producer”. Russia is the largest non-OPEC participant.
Main Advantages and Limitations
Advantages
- Price stability. Coordinated action can prevent the sharpest price collapses that damage producer budgets and investment.
- Predictability. Regular announcements give the market clear signals about supply.
- Scale. The alliance accounts for roughly two-fifths of world crude production and a very large share of global exports, so its decisions matter.
Limitations
- Compliance. There is no enforcement mechanism, and members sometimes miss targets.
- Market share loss. Higher prices can encourage output from the United States, Brazil, Guyana, Canada and others outside the alliance.
- Internal differences. Members have different fiscal needs, spare capacity and views on prices. Disputes over baselines and growth plans are common and have contributed to exits.
- Demand risk. The group can restrict supply, but it cannot create demand during a slowdown.
Costs, Efficiency and Market Role of OPEC+
Part of the answer to what is OPEC+ in practice is who pays for its policies. Cutting output costs producers revenue in volume terms, in the hope that higher prices more than compensate. Countries with low production costs, such as Saudi Arabia, can hold spare capacity at a modest expense, while high-cost or fiscally stretched members feel the pressure of restraint more strongly.
The alliance is effective when the market is tight and members agree. It is less effective when many members need revenue and are tempted to sell more. Its influence is strongest in the short and medium term; over longer periods, technology, shale economics, efficiency gains and the energy transition shape demand and supply more than quotas do.
For consumers, the effect shows up through crude benchmarks such as Brent, which feed into petrol, diesel, aviation fuel and petrochemical prices. For importing countries, an OPEC+ decision can influence inflation and trade balances within weeks.
Leading Countries and Companies
Production decisions are made by governments, but national oil companies carry them out. Saudi Aramco, Iraq’s state firms, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, NNPC in Nigeria, Rosneft and other Russian producers, and KazMunayGas in Kazakhstan are among the operators that implement the quotas in their fields. International oil companies working under production-sharing or service contracts in OPEC countries must also follow the host country’s limits.
The key people in the process are the energy ministers, particularly those of Saudi Arabia and Russia, and the OPEC Secretary General, who chairs the secretariat’s work and communicates group decisions.
Future Outlook
Several questions will shape the alliance in the coming years. The first is cohesion: the departure of a major producer with large spare capacity shows that members can decide that quotas conflict with their own growth plans. The second is capacity measurement: the group has been working on a process to assess each member’s maximum sustainable production, which would underpin future baselines. The third is demand: electric vehicles, efficiency and policy in large importing countries could slow oil use, while petrochemicals and aviation continue to support consumption.
The most useful way to follow OPEC+ is to watch the data behind its decisions: global inventories, spare capacity estimates and demand forecasts from the IEA, OPEC and EIA.
Frequently Asked Questions: What Is OPEC+ and Who Runs It?
What is the difference between OPEC and OPEC+?
OPEC is a permanent intergovernmental organisation with a secretariat in Vienna and formal membership. OPEC+ is a broader, looser alliance that adds non-OPEC producers such as Russia to coordinate output.
Who leads OPEC+?
Saudi Arabia and Russia are widely seen as the group’s two leaders, though decisions require consensus among all participants.
How do OPEC+ cuts affect oil prices?
Cuts reduce supply relative to demand, which tends to support prices. The size of the effect depends on demand strength, inventories and output from producers outside the alliance.
Can OPEC+ force a country to follow a quota?
No. Compliance is voluntary, monitored publicly and encouraged through compensation plans and peer pressure.
Is OPEC+ the same as a cartel?
Critics describe it that way, while members describe it as a cooperation framework to stabilise markets. It is not a formal price-fixing agreement, but its quotas do aim to influence prices.
Conclusion
So, what is OPEC+? It is the main mechanism through which major oil exporters coordinate supply, combining OPEC’s institutions with the weight of Russia and other partners. Its decisions can move crude prices quickly, but its power is limited by weak enforcement, competition from other producers and shifting demand. Anyone tracking oil markets should follow its meetings, but should read them alongside inventory and demand data.
Sources and further reading
- Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, member and meeting information (opec.org)
- International Energy Agency, Oil Market Report (iea.org)
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook and OPEC briefings (eia.gov)
- Reuters and other wire services, explainers on current OPEC+ output policy (reuters.com)
