The volume of oil produced by OPEC rose to almost 30 million barrels a day in February, 117,000 barrels a day more than in January, despite the group's commitment to keep production limited, it was announced today.

According to data published today by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in its monthly report for March, quoted by Lusa, the rise was mainly due to Nigeria, which increased extractions by 79,000 barrels per day to a total of 1.380 million barrels per day.

In February, Saudi Arabia, Congo, Iran, Libya and, to a lesser extent, Venezuela also increased their production.

In total, the 13 OPEC members extracted 28.92 million barrels per day, according to the data in the document, which is based on estimates from various independent institutes.

These figures vary from the official figures communicated by the partners themselves, which are also reflected in the report.

Thus, while secondary sources suggest that Venezuela produced an average of 700,000 barrels a day of crude oil, withdrawing another 4,000 barrels a day, Caracas puts the figure at 704,000 barrels a day in February, although 28,000 barrels a day less than in January.

Together with Russia and nine other allied independent producers, OPEC has pledged to maintain the production cuts agreed in October to support rising oil prices.

In total, the group of 23 nations known as OPEC+ and led by Saudi Arabia and Russia then sanctioned a joint production cut of two million barrels per day.

In today's report, OPEC remains largely unchanged in its view of the world oil market, outlined a month ago and marked by a series of unpredictable factors.

"Given the high level of uncertainty," the OPEC+ alliance will continue to "closely monitor market developments" to "address the challenges in order to ensure sustainable stability," the organization's experts promise.

The next regular meeting of OPEC+ sector ministers is scheduled for the beginning of June.