UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazroui said on Wednesday the country is committed to the OPEC+ agreement and existing production adjustment mechanisms.
"The UAE is committed to the OPEC+ agreement and the existing production adjustment mechanism," he wrote on Twitter. - "The UAE believes in the value of OPEC+ to the oil market."
In doing so, the minister was responding to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's statement that the UAE had pledged to increase oil production to mitigate the current difficult situation in global energy markets. "As I understand it, there was a very recent announcement, I'm not sure if it's public yet, of Emirates support for increased production when it comes to OPEC," the US diplomatic chief said.
Indeed, UAE Ambassador to the US Yousef Al Uteiba recently announced his country's support for increased production and its intention to urge OPEC to consider it. However, Abu Dhabi made it clear that the Emirati diplomat's statement was misinterpreted.
United front
Saudi Arabia adopted a similar stance to that of the UAE at the end of February. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, the kingdom's first deputy prime minister and defense minister, affirmed the kingdom's commitment to the OPEC+ agreement with Russia.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the leaders of the two Middle Eastern nations refused to hold phone talks with US President Joe Biden, who wanted to discuss the situation around Ukraine and the possibility of ramping up oil production to lower global hydrocarbon prices. "There were expectations regarding the phone call, but it did not take place," the newspaper quoted a US official as saying. Meanwhile, both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is considered the de facto ruler of the kingdom, and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy commander-in-chief of the UAE military, held telephone talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week.
According to regional analysts, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are thereby signaling to Washington that they can only talk about increased production if the United States helps them in Yemen, where two Arab countries in the Riyadh-led Arab coalition have been fighting against Yemeni Ansar Allah ( Houthis ) insurgents for nearly seven years. Moreover, relations between Riyadh and Washington are in principle not at their best right now.
On Tuesday, Biden signed an order imposing an embargo on energy imports from Russia, which caused the WTI crude futures to rise to $124 a barrel; the price of Brent crude futures reached a 10-year high of $128 a barrel this week. Prices at US gas stations hit an all-time high on Tuesday, and Biden said they would continue to rise, but there was nothing the US administration could do about it in the current environment.
On March 2, the OPEC+ countries maintained their plan to increase oil production by 400,000 bpd for April. The next ministerial meeting is scheduled for March 31, 2022.
The OPEC+ countries have agreed to cut oil production under the new agreement since May 2020. At that time, the participating countries cut their production by a record 9.7 million bpd. As the oil market recovered, the restrictions softened, and from August 2021 they became more stable, as each month OPEC+ countries can increase production by 400 thousand bpd. They confirm this plan at meetings at the beginning of each month.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS