Explainer-in-brief: OPEC+ isn’t coming to the rescue
As the US and the UK took the dramatic step of turning away from Russian oil, the Biden administration has been putting significant pressure on the group of Gulf oil suppliers to ramp up production.
The OPEC+ group, which includes Russia, resisted the calls to pump more crude to help bring down oil prices, which on Monday spiked to $139 a barrell – the highest since 2008.
The United Arab Emirates yesterday reaffirmed its commitment to the Opec+ production agreement in a sign it was not willing to step in and fill the void left by Russia.
It was in conflict with a message from Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador in Washington, who said Abu Dhabi was willing to consider production increases.
Opec+ consists of 13 Opec members and ten of the world’ major non-Opec oil-exporting nations. The aim of the group is to regulate oil supply and control the market price. But spare capacity has been sitting at roughly 3.2m barells a day in January, short of the usual 5m barrels a day buffer needed to prevent volatility in the market.