Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies (OPEC+ group) will increase crude supply by about 50% in July and August.

The agreement reached on Thursday is a yielding to pressure from major oil consumers, notably the U.S., to ease escalating energy prices and, consequently, inflation.

Ministers from cartel members and their allies agreed to boost supplies in July and August by 648,000 barrels of oil a day, up from the 432,000-barrel-a-day increases that had been agreed for the most recent months, Bloomberg indicated, citing delegates at the meeting.

According to Jornal Negócios, the increase in supply will be divided proportionally among the member countries, as usual, and countries that have not been able to increase their production, such as Angola, Nigeria and, more recently, Russia, will continue to have a higher quota. This means, therefore, that the increase in supply may be lower than that established in the agreement, as has been the case in recent months.

The additional increase in OPEC+ supply is expected to come from a few countries, Bloomberg points out, noting that only Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have spare capacity for a rapid increase in production.

Russia, for example, produced 1.3 million barrels per day in April, below its allocated OPEC+ quota, according to International Energy Agency data.