A month and a half after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, it seems that the rift between Washington and Riyadh is only widening. Since the outbreak of the crisis in Ukraine, Riyadh has argued that “political considerations” should not be introduced into the oil market. According to the Saudis, a European boycott of Russian oil will cause a severe shock in the world market and Riyadh will not be able to cover the shortage that will be created.
Under Saudi pressure, the OPEC has decided to stop using data released by the International Energy Agency (IEA) claiming it is under “American influence”. Significantly their oil output, in a way that would allow Europe to join the American boycott of Russian oil.
Last month, Saudi Arabia increased its output by just an additional 54,000 barrels per day, reaching 10,262 million barrels per day, out of a total output of 28.557 million barrels by the 13 members of the organization.
The Saudis expect oil demand to grow by about 3.7 million barrels this year and to reach about 100.5 million barrels per day. This is a small demand from the early expectation that there will be an increase of more than 4 million barrels of oil per day. Therefore, the Saudis believe that increasing productivity is not required.
Saudi Arabia has adhered to the oil production agreement it has with Russia under what is known as OPEC +, according to which the output in the current year will be increased by about 400,000 barrels per day, each month. Compared to this month’s output.