The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries “OPEC” and its allies led by Russia, the group known as “OPEC +”; To cancel the historic production cuts they approved in 2020 after the Corona virus caused an unprecedented drop in global demand.
Then, former US President Donald Trump intervened to encourage Riyadh and Moscow to end the price war and work together to support the oil market.
But oil prices rose to their highest levels in more than seven years this week due to tight supplies and the disruption of crude exports from Russia due to the wide-ranging sanctions against Moscow.
The members of the International Energy Agency, who met today to discuss the Ukraine crisis, also agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves.
The United States wants “OPEC +” to increase at a faster pace the volume of production that it has pumped since last August, but there is no surplus capacity in only a few countries, including the actual leader of OPEC, which is Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Riyadh has so far been able to resist US calls to increase production at a faster pace than the OPEC + agreement called for.
Also, the official Saudi Press Agency reported that the Council of Ministers confirmed today its commitment to the “OPEC +” agreement, which calls for monthly increases of 400,000 barrels per day.
In parallel, Russian and Emirati news agencies reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone call with Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan today, and that they discussed the “OPEC +” agreement and pledged to continue coordination on global energy markets.
Four sources in “OPEC +” told “Archyde.com” today that the group will likely agree to an increase of 400,000 barrels per day for the month of April when it meets tomorrow, Wednesday, despite the events in Ukraine.