On April 15, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 10 non-OPEC partner countries, collectively known as OPEC+, agreed to reduce crude oil production in response to rapidly increasing global oil inventories in the first quarter of 2020. At the time, efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus resulted in a steep decline in demand for petroleum liquids and lower crude oil prices. Starting in May 2020, the OPEC+ agreement called for a decrease in crude oil output by an initial 9.7 million barrels per day (b/d) that gradually tapers through April 2022, the end of the current agreement period.
