Last Thursday, the OPEC + – led by Saudi Arabia and Russia – reported that in December it will increase its pumping by 400,000 barrels of oil per day, thus following the plan agreed last July.
The organization made up of thirteen crude exporting countries and ten other independent producers, They chose not to give in to pressure from the United States and other industrialized nations, which have repeatedly demanded a greater increase in the supply of oil to lower energy prices., given that demand has already reached pre-COVID-19 levels.
However, the OPEC + ministers rejected that the reason for the problems facing the world energy market is an oil shortage.
With that decision, the agreement approved in July by OPEC + is still in place, which decided to finish gradually returning to the market the 9.7 million barrels per day (mbd) of crude that it withdrew in May 2020 in reaction to the historic collapse in demand. caused by the coronavirus.
Shocks between the US and OPEC +
On the other hand, the president of the United States, Joe Biden, recently noted that the rising cost of gasoline and fuels is due “to the refusal maintained up to now by Russia and the OPEC nations to pump more oil.”
Along these lines, the Saudi Minister of Energy, Abdelaziz bin Salmán, stressed that inflationary pressures are mainly due to the sharp rise in gas and coal prices.
“The fundamental cause is the lack of stored reserves” of these energy sources, indicated Bin Salmán, adding that the rise in “petroprices” is only part of a general context, and that thanks to the control exercised by OPEC + the increase in prices it is even much lower than that of other sources.
To illustrate this, the Saudi official contrasted the 28% increase in the price of a barrel of Brent crude between March and November, with the increases in the same period of natural gas in the United States, coal and natural gas in the European Union ( EU), and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in Asia, which were, respectively, 105%, 109%, 394% and 454%.
“What we have seen in recent months is time and again that energy markets need to be regulated,” said the Saudi minister, and gave as an example of “responsibility” the policy of OPEC + to “stabilize” the world oil market. .
Source: EFE
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