09:10 AM EST, 12/05/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Oil prices rose early on Thursday after OPEC+, as expected, agreed to extend the start of returning 2.2-million barrels per day of voluntary production cuts to market until April instead of January and will push out the full return over 18 months instead of a year.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil for January delivery was last seen up US$0.22 to US$68.76 per barrel, while February Brent crude was up US$0.19 to US$72.50.

The revised plan will see the cartel return the voluntary cuts made by Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, and Oman fully to market in monthly increments until September, 2026

"The 2.2 million barrels per day adjustments will be gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026 to support market stability ... This monthly increase can be paused or reversed subject to market conditions," OPEC said in a release.

The extended return may offer some comfort to traders, but major forecasting agencies expect oil supply will be higher than demand beginning in the second quarter on rising production from the United States, Canada and South America, while demand growth in China is weak.

The group's decision comes a day after the Energy Information Administration reported U.S. oil production rose to a record 13.51-million barrels per day last week, up from 31.1-million bpd a year earlier. Production from Alberta, the largest source of U.S. oil imports, rose to a record 4.18-million bpd in October, up by 0.36-million bpd from September, according to the province's energy regulator.

"Smothering all factors in US oil assessment is the continued rise in national production which hit another record of 13.513mbpd. This reminded the market that a pro-oil incoming US President will likely ease the path for that amount of output to again increase," PVM Oil Associates noted.