Investing.com -- The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, collectively known as OPEC+, confirmed on Monday that they will proceed with a planned oil output increase in April, according to reports from Bloomberg and Reuters. This decision marks the first increase since 2022 and comes in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s renewed pressure on OPEC and Saudi Arabia to reduce oil prices.

The planned increase is set at 138,000 barrels per day, according to calculations by financial analysts. Eight OPEC+ members, responsible for the most recent layer of output reductions, agreed to this increase during a virtual meeting.

In a statement, OPEC noted that the gradual increase could be paused or reversed depending on market conditions. This flexibility aims to support oil market stability. Oil prices have been fluctuating between $70 and $82 a barrel in recent weeks due to anticipated changes to U.S. sanctions on large oil producers Iran, Russia, and Venezuela, as well as U.S. tariffs on China that could potentially decrease demand.

OPEC+ sources stated that the mix of bullish and bearish factors made the decision-making for April’s output extremely complicated. They also mentioned that Trump’s plans for global tariffs could further complicate the outlook.

Since 2022, OPEC+ has cut output by 5.85 million barrels per day, which is about 5.7% of global supply, to support the market. In December, OPEC+ extended its latest layer of cuts through the first quarter of 2025, delaying the plan to start increasing output to April. As per the plan, the gradual unwinding of 2.2 million bpd of cuts - the most recent layer - begins in April with a monthly rise of 138,000 bpd.

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