Declaration of Cooperation

The Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) is the founding document of the OPEC+ alliance, signed in December 2016 at the Vienna headquarters of the OPEC Secretariat between the 13 OPEC members and 10 non-OPEC producers led by Russia. The DoC established a voluntary framework for coordinating crude oil production levels with the aim of stabilising markets and reducing the global surplus that had depressed prices since 2014. It has since been renewed and expanded through successive ministerial meetings, with the June 2023 Riyadh extension adding voluntary individual cuts of 1.66mbd by several members on top of the group's base quota. The OPEC MOMR refers to DoC members' output and the 'call on DoC producers' as the market-balancing arithmetic: in June 2026, required crude from DoC members was placed at 42.5mbd against actual output of 33.13mbd .

The DoC operates by consensus rather than binding treaty. Each member retains sovereignty over its own production decisions, and the framework lacks enforcement mechanisms beyond the reputational and diplomatic cost of non-compliance. Monitoring is handled by the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), which meets monthly and reports to the plenary ministerial meeting. Secondary-source production data from OPEC's MOMR, Argus, and Platts are used to assess compliance because several members do not provide self-reported output figures to the Secretariat.

The gap between DoC required crude and actual output is the central market-intelligence variable for supply analysts. When DoC output significantly exceeds the call (overproduction), it signals potential quota cheating and bearish supply; when it falls below (underproduction), it indicates tighter-than-quota compliance and bullish tightening. In June 2026, the gap between 42.5mbd required and 33.13mbd actual reflects both the scale of voluntary cuts and the group's collective strategy of keeping supply below the structural demand floor to sustain backwardation.