FILE – The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) logo is visible outside OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The OPEC oil cartel and its allies will meet on Wednesday, August 3, 2022, to decide how much oil to produce in September. They are meeting between high oil prices and instability in energy supplies exacerbated by the war Russia is waging against Ukraine. (Photo AP / Lisa Leutner, file)
The OPEC + oil cartel agreed on a slight increase in oil production on Wednesday, 100 thousand barrels a day, an amount significantly less than what came take-out in previous months.
The decision is a setback for the United States, after its president, Joe Biden, called for an increase in production during his visit to Saudi Arabia in mid-July to try to curb the rise in oil prices.
Representatives of the 13 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its ten partners agreed to “increase production (…) by 100,000 barrels per day for the month of September”, compared to the approximately 432,000 and 648,000 additional barrels set in the previous months, according to a press release released after a ministerial videoconference.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (right) receives US President Joe Biden (left) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Photo: XINHUA
In making its decision, the group took into account the impacts that inflation and rising COVID-19 rates they would have on the world demand for fuel in the next months.
OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and its allies, led by Russia, cut production during the pandemic as oil prices and demand plummeted and those cuts expire in September.
The OPEC + coalition has gradually added more oil and gas to the market as economies have recovered. Some OPEC countries, such as Angola and Nigeria, have produced less than agreed. For their part, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have the opportunity to increase productionalthough it is unclear whether they would like to do so.
A frustrated bid from Biden
After his visit to Saudi Arabia in early July, Joe Biden said the Saudis shared his “urgency” to increase the supply of oil and that he expected “new measures” to be announced towards this goal.
The Saudis, on the other hand, reiterated that the decisions on oil policy would be taken according to the logic of the market and in the consensus of the OPEC + coalition.
“We listen to our partners and friends around the world, especially consumer countries,” Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters. “But in the end, OPEC + follows the market situation and it will provide energy as needed“, to complete.
Source: AFP and AP
Source: Clarin
