Saudi Arabia and Russia-led oil producers’ alliance OPEC+ plays a key role in maintaining the balance and stability of the oil markets, Saudi ministers stressed on Tuesday, urging the international community to assume responsibility for energy supplies’ maintenance.
They also urged for awareness of the danger of Iran supplying Yemen’s Houthis with ballistic missiles and drones that are later used in attacks on Saudi Arabia, such as the latest one targeting Aramco facilities at the weekend which caused a temporary drop in the Yanbu refinery’s oil output which is normally 400,000 BPD.
Following the incident, the Kingdom noted it would not bear responsibility for any global supply shortage as a result of the attacks.
Crude oil prices have increased significantly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but OPEC+ has resisted calls by the US and the other consuming nations to raise their output at a faster rate to calm the market.
The bulk of OPEC spare capacity is held by Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest oil producer and the world’s biggest exporter of crude, and the UAE.
Each month since August, OPEC+ has worked for several months to bring back 5.8 million bpd in production cuts and has been raising the output by 400,000 barrels per day to unwind cuts made when the COVID-19 pandemic hit demand in 2020.
The producers’ alliance achieved a historic reduction of 9.7 million bpd between May 2020 and July last year.
However, it’s not expected for OPEC+ to make a new decision at its next meeting on March 31 since most of its members believe the current price increase is a result of geopolitical factors.
The price of the global benchmark, the Brent crude, passed $116 a barrel on Tuesday, continuing its upward movement after hitting $139 a barrel at one point this month, the highest since 2008.
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