OPEC+ has announced production hikes for five straight months.

Major oil producers on Sunday agreed once again to modestly increase their crude production, although, as in previous months, the hike is largely symbolic until a peace deal between the U.S. and Iran sticks and the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened to shipping traffic.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, known as OPEC+, announced Sunday they would collectively raise output by 188,000 barrels a day in August, the fifth consecutive month the group has announced production hikes.

The group, which includes Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman, said in a statement that they would "continue to closely monitor and assess market conditions" and "reaffirmed the importance of adopting a cautious approach and retaining full flexibility to increase, pause or reverse" production adjustments, unwinding a series of output cuts first announced in 2023.

That doesn't include increased oil output from the United Arab Emirates, which dropped out of OPEC in May, or from Iran, since U.S. has lifted its naval blockage of Iranian ports as part of the cease-fire agreement.

Oil prices have fallen to roughly pre-war levels over the past month, despite flare-ups that threatened the cease-fire between the U.S. and Iran. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery (CLQ26) (CL.1) settled Thursday at $68.69, down 22% over the past month, while Brent crude for September delivery (BRNU26) (BRN00), the global benchmark, settled Friday at $72.12 a barrel, down 20% over the past month.

But while the future risk to the Persian Gulf oil trade appears to have diminished, "it does not mean the market has returned to normal," Salih Yilmaz, a senior industry analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, told MarketWatch last week. Insurance costs are still high, some oil facilities are still being repaired after suffering war damage and shipping traffic through the strait has not yet returned to pre-war levels.

Meanwhile, the British military said Sunday a cargo ship was attacked off the coast of Yemen, the Associated Press reported. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen have previously threatened to disrupt Red Sea shipping traffic.

-Mike Murphy

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July 05, 2026 15:55 ET (19:55 GMT)

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