IRAQ said OPEC+’s strategy of gradually raising oil production is enough to balance the market and the group has no need to be more aggressive, despite crude’s surge this year to almost US$100 a barrel.

The 23-nation alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, will meet March 2. It is factoring in growth in output from non-OPEC+ members such as Brazil and Canada and doesn’t want to see any increase in commercially-stored oil around the world, according to Iraq’s Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar.

“We think the market will have more and more oil so we think there’s no need to make an increase” beyond today’s strategy, he said in an interview yesterday in Qatar, where he’s attending a natural gas conference. “We will not create any growth to the commercial storage. We will secure all the demand by making the required supply.”

Jabbar said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners will make their decision for April only after reviewing fresh data on supply and demand.

Some major oil importers have called on OPEC+ to pump faster and put pressure on the likes of Saudi Arabia to use up some of their spare capacity.

Several of OPEC+’s biggest producers want to continue with the current plan and add another 400,000 barrels a day of crude to the market in April, Bloomberg reported Monday.

Jabbar said it would be “unfair” for any OPEC+ state to raise output beyond its quota, despite many members struggling to reach theirs.

“We have come from the recovery from COVID,” he said. “It is not fair that you will give the increase just for some countries.”

OPEC+ has been gradually raising production following deep cuts at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which crushed demand for oil.

Crude has surged with the global economic recovery and is up around 20 percent this year. Last year, several major importers, including the U.S., called on OPEC+ to ease its cuts faster.

OPEC+ has said its monthly increases of 400,000 barrels per day are enough to stabilize the market. Some members have blamed the run-up in prices on geopolitical tension over Ukraine.

The energy ministers of OPEC’s four biggest members — Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait —met in Riyadh on Sunday. They said their strategy was helping to balance energy markets.(SD-Agencies)