UAE: OPEC+ Capable Of Raising Oil Production If There's Demand

The OPEC+ group has the capability to increase its crude oil supply to the market if there is demand, according to one of the key members of the coalition, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The UAE has the capacity to boost its own crude oil supply to the market in case the market needs it and the OPEC+ alliance endorses it, Suhail al-Mazrouei, the UAE's Energy Minister, told Dubai-based Asharq TV channel as carried by Reuters.

Despite the UAE's reassurance that market demand will be met, the OPEC+ group ignored calls from the U.S. Administration and other major oil importers such as India and Japan to increase December supply more than initially planned.

OPEC+ decided last week to continue easing the collective oil production cuts by just 400,000 barrels per day next month, ignoring calls from major oil-consuming nations to open the taps and tame the price rally. The rationale for keeping a cautious approach seems to be assessments from OPEC+ experts that Q4 would see a smaller market deficit than expected earlier and that the balance would tip into surplus next year.

Days before that, U.S. President Joe Biden had said at the G20 meeting in Rome that the refusal of OPEC+ in recent weeks to increase crude oil production is affecting America's working class.

OPEC+ not only ignored the calls for extra crude oil supply, but it also told the market, via Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, that "oil is not the problem" in the global energy crisis.

The OPEC+ decision was taken "to ensure a stable and a balanced oil market, the efficient and secure supply to consumers and to provide clarity to the market at times when other parts of the energy complex outside the boundaries of oil markets are experiencing extreme volatility and instability, and to continue to adopt a proactive and transparent approach which has provided stability to oil markets," OPEC said after the meeting.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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