Photo taken on Nov. 30, 2023 shows the headquarters of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, Austria. [Photo/Xinhua]

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group known as OPEC+, agreed Thursday to keep oil production at the current levels for the first quarter of 2025.

In a statement on the OPEC website, eight OPEC+ countries -- Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman -- said they would extend voluntary output cuts of 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), originally announced in November 2023, to the end of March 2025.

These voluntary cuts will be "gradually phased out on a monthly basis until the end of September 2026 to support market stability," but the monthly increase can be paused or reversed as per market conditions, according to the statement.

Additionally, the eight countries will prolong their voluntary production cuts of 1.65 million bpd, first announced in April 2023, to the end of 2026.

Oil ministers from the eight countries talked on the sidelines of a virtual OPEC+ ministerial meeting on Thursday.

In a separate statement, OPEC said OPEC+ countries agreed at the ministerial meeting to extend the level of overall crude production to the whole year of 2026.

OPEC+ has made the decisions to "achieve and sustain a stable oil market, and to provide long-term guidance and transparency for the market, and in line with the approach of being precautious, proactive, and pre-emptive," according to the statement.

At the ministerial meeting, OPEC+ countries also reiterated the importance of adhering to full conformity with production quotas and the group's compensation mechanism.

Oil prices have generally trended downward in recent weeks due to concerns over slowing global demand and increased supply from producers outside the OPEC+ alliance. International crude benchmark Brent has traded slightly above 70 U.S. dollars per barrel for the past weeks, down from over 80 dollars in July.

Since August, OPEC has lowered its forecasts for global oil demand growth in both 2024 and 2025 for four consecutive months, as detailed in its monthly market reports.

The next OPEC+ ministerial meeting is scheduled for May 28, 2025, to review production policy. However, the group's Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee retains the authority to convene additional meetings as needed to respond to market developments.