Kuwait, UAE confirm OPEC+ decision to cut production is not political

Kuwait’s official news agency, citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed that Kuwait confirms that OPEC+’s decision to cut production was taken unanimously and is based on purely economic studies.

At the same time, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazruei expressed his country’s conviction that “OPEC+” made the right technical decision when it agreed to cut production and made the decision unanimously without touching the policy. . .

His comments came after several members of the oil producing group backed a sharp cut to production targets agreed this month after the White House accused Saudi Arabia of seeking support from other countries, which Riyadh denied.

Al Mazrouei told the media: “We fully trust and believe in the technical credibility of OPEC and OPEC+. We always meet and discuss the facts based on our analysis of the market and how we can all contribute to taking the right steps to balance supply and demand. This decision is always taken unanimously and the last decision is taken with the same logic.” He added that “I want to repeat that politics has nothing to do with the decision we made in OPEC.”

Ahead of the US midterm elections in November, the measure drew strong criticism from US President Joe Biden’s administration, which said there would be “consequences” for US relations with Saudi Arabia after the measure was announced.

The United States emphasized that the cuts would increase Russia’s foreign revenues and reduce the effectiveness of sanctions imposed by the invasion of Ukraine.

Al Mazrouei said the decision resulted in prices stabilizing rather than just rising, adding that the lack of stability is causing investors to flee. Al Mazrouei added that “prices are stabilizing and in fact, if you look mainly at October-October 2021, before all the geopolitical crises, you will see that we are in the same price range.” He expressed concern that many oil producers will lose production capacity due to lack of investment.

Asked whether the UAE intends to demand a higher baseline as it works to increase production capacity to five million barrels a day by 2030, Al Mazrouei said there is a mechanism for any country to increase that demand.

In this regard, OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais said Tuesday at an energy conference in Cape Town, South Africa, that the oil producing group “OPEC+” has moved to cut production to avoid a new crisis and contain the wave of fluctuations.

Speaking at the Africa Energy Week conference, he added that oil and gas reserves will be needed in Africa as energy demand will increase significantly by 2045.

Khartoum supports Riyadh’s position

Also in Sudan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday that Khartoum confirms that the decision taken by the OPEC+ alliance to reduce oil production by two million barrels a day was taken by consensus and consensus among all member states.

The statement said that coalition member Sudan “supports the position expressed by Saudi Arabia that coalition decisions are based on purely economic considerations and the reality of supply and demand to achieve stability in energy markets.” and serves the interests of all traders”.