The group approved the continuation of current production levels for April, except that Russia and Kazakhstan will be allowed to increase production by 130,000 and 20,000 barrels per day, respectively.
The news caught many investors by surprise, which likely contributed to the exaggerated reaction to the story. Going into the OPEC+ meeting, energy analysts told CNBC earlier this week that they had expected OPEC+ to discuss allowing as much as 1.3 million barrels per day back into the market for April and perhaps beyond. Their assessment may have been based on dovish comments from Non-OPEC leader Russia earlier in the week.
