The International Monetary Fund has recommended that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries needs to more than double its spare capacity to cushion the market against shocks, warning that it considers the current level of about 1.5m barrels a day insufficient.

In a chapter of the Fund's World Economic Outlook report, to be published next month, the IMF says Opec's production cushion needs to rise to about 3m to 5m b/d, equivalent to between 3.5 and 5.5 per cent of global daily demand, to provide “much better protection”.