OPEC+ struggled to raise output in July, missing production targets by nearly 3 million barrels a day, report says

• OPEC+ nations struggle in raising their oil output, missing July targets even more than what was seen last month.
• OPEC+ fell short by 2.9 million barrels a day last month, two sources told Reuters.

OPEC+ nations continue to struggle in raising their oil output, with the cartel missing its production targets by nearly 3 million barrels a day last month, according to a report.

Two sources from OPEC+ said the organization fell short by 2.9 million barrels a day in July, despite promising to hike its production by 648,000 barrels a day throughout July and August, according to a report from Reuters. It's even more of a fallback than what was seen in June, when OPEC+ missed its production target by 2.8 million barrels a day.

Western nations have pleaded with the organization for more oil, but experts think the cartel has largely run out of the capacity to produce more, and can't do much to lower energy prices. Indeed, OPEC+ agreed to only modest hike of 100,000 barrels per day for September.

The cartel's new leader, Haitham Al Ghais, said last week that was because of underinvestment within the entire energy sector, noting that OPEC+ wasn't to blame for sky-high prices.

Goldman Sachs analyst Michele Della Vigna recently estimated that OPEC+ has remaining capacity of roughly 1 million barrels per day, the smallest in about 20 years. Most of the extra capacity within OPEC+ would likely lie in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, Reuters said.

Meanwhile, the US and Iran are also trying to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, which could allow Tehran to export another 1 million barrels a day on the global market. But analysts think that's unlikely to happen soon.