The Sinopec award comes on the heels of an agreement between Iraq and Total to jointly work on developing four associated gas and solar power projects.

With the production gains, OPEC+ compliance with its quotas slipped to 111% in March, compared with 113.5% in February, juiced by Saudi Arabia voluntarily cutting an additional 1 million b/d since January.

The OPEC+ alliance will raise its collective output caps by 350,000 b/d in May, another 350,000 b/d in June, and 441,000 b/d in July.

The positives offer hope, but we need to remember that the environment remains challenging, complex and uncertain, with the market volatility we have witnessed in the last two weeks of March a reminder of the fragility facing economies and oil demand.

OPEC+ will discuss whether to revive part of the 1.2 million barrels a day of output it’s committed to returning to the market in installments this year. At the same time, the Saudis will review the status of an additional 1 million barrel-a-day cut they have been making since February to accelerate the process of clearing the lingering oil glut.

Faltering oil prices in recent days after a weeks-long surge to around $70/b have many analysts forecasting that the OPEC+ group of producers may largely roll over their quotas for at least another month.

With non-OPEC supply forecast to bounce back by 950,000 b/d in 2021 to 63.8 million b/d, OPEC lowered the estimated demand for its crude by 240,000 b/d to 27.26 million b/d.

"I would like to assure that we and Russia would like a oil price which is fair to consumers and to producers," Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said at a press briefing with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh.

Overall conformity with the original decision was 103 per cent, reinforcing the trend of aggregate high conformity by participating countries.

Combined, the so-called OPEC+ alliance produced 37.83 million b/d, its lowest since October, the survey found, putting the group's compliance with its quotas at 113.5%.