Pour The Wall Street Journal, it is a decision “likely to drive up already high global energy prices and help oil-exporting Russia pay for its war in Ukraine”.
Wednesday, October 5, reports the American daily, the countries of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) “announced a sharp reduction in oil production, up to 2 million barrels per day less, which represents approximately 2% of world production”.
A decision which was taken in agreement with other allied countries of the 13 members of OPEC, united within an alliance called OPEC +, of which Russia is a part.
The effects of these measures for Moscow are precisely at the heart of the analysis of the economic daily, which explains that, according to experts, “This move would be a big win for Russia, which has lost about 1 million barrels a day of oil production since the war began in February.”
The Kremlin should indeed see the profits of its exports increase, in a context where Russian power is threatened by “the prospect of an EU oil embargo and G7 price cap”.
A decision that “disappoints” Joe Biden
In private, some OPEC + delegates would have confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that this reduction in production would make up for Russia’s loss of market share. Better, the delegates would have recognized that this decision “represented an unprecedented effort by the world’s largest oil producers to help together Russia, struggling with the economic and political problems caused by the war in Ukraine”.
A measure which, obviously, also suits the petro-monarchies of OPEC, but which strongly displeases the United States. And indeed, teaches us the site of the American newspaper The Hill, through a press release, the White House has already made it known that Joe Biden was “disappointed” by a decision “which will have a very negative impact on middle and low income countries, which are already suffering from high energy prices”.