VIENNA —
Saudi Arabia,
Russia, and other top
oil producers on Wednesday agreed to hold firm on only gradually opening the
taps despite Russia’s assault on Ukraine sending prices spiraling.
اضافة اعلان
Both WTI crude and Brent broke above $110 a barrel
Wednesday. Brent is at a high last seen in 2014, while WTI is at levels not
seen since 2013.
OPEC+ — at monthly back-to-back meetings that lasted
less than an hour — decided to stick to a decision from last year for an output
target of 400,000 barrels per day for April as well, the group said in a
statement.
Analysts had widely expected the 23-member group to
stick to its guns. A next meeting will be held on March 31, the group said.
On Sunday,
OPEC leader Riyadh confirmed the
commitment of the 13-country group to the agreement with its 10 partners, led
by Moscow, which faces international criticism and sanctions over its invasion
of Ukraine.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman “affirmed the
kingdom’s keenness on the stability and balance of oil markets,” according to
the Saudi Press Agency.
‘Risk for disruptions’
Wednesday’s meetings, held
via video conference, come a day after
International Energy Agency (IEA)
countries agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil to stabilize global
markets.
The US will contribute half of the amount, President
Joe Biden announced.
But the move has failed to assure markets, and
analysts had low expectations that OPEC+ would take any decision to rein in
surging prices.
“The war in Ukraine is getting very ugly and
destructive and hostilities between the West and Russia are intensifying. High
risk for disruptions to both crude and natural gas,” Bjarne Schieldrop of Seb
said ahead of the meeting.
‘Paper promise’
OPEC+ has so far resisted
pressure from major oil consumers, such as the US, to open the taps more as
some of its members, including Nigeria and Angola, struggle to meet quotas.
Between December and January, OPEC members boosted
their production by 64,000 barrels per day (bpd), far below their 400,000 bpd
agreement, according to the organization’s last monthly report.
“The pledge from
OPEC+ to increase supply is so far
a paper promise... adding to the shortness in the supply market and further
stoking the bullish price environment,” Louise Dickson of Rystad Energy said.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC), whose secretariat is based in Vienna, had drastically slashed
production in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread through the world,
pummeling demand and prices.
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