OPEC made its third attempt Monday to resolve a deadlock on oil production between two of the cartel’s closest and most important members.
Saudi Arabia will lead the virtual talks after failing on Thursday and Friday to convince the United Arab Emirates—typically one of its most dependable supporters in the group—to sign off on a deal that would unleash millions of barrels a day of crude and potentially cut oil prices that have been driven higher by pandemic reopenings. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is meeting with a group of Russia-led oil producers, an alliance called OPEC-plus, after hammering out a tentative deal to pump more oil late last week.
Early last year, the group agreed to cut its collective output by some 9.7 million barrels a day, taking out the equivalent of about 10% of 2019 global demand, when economies were shutting down. The group has since restored a big chunk of that. On Friday, most delegates agreed to a deal to gradually undo the rest, some 5.8 million barrels a day, by increasing production by 400,000 barrels a day each month through late 2022.
All that extra pumping capacity has given OPEC and its allies more influence over crude markets than they have enjoyed in years—if they can all agree on how to use it.
But the U.A.E. has balked at signing on to the deal, saying it wants a boost to its own production quota inside the broader OPEC-plus framework. The country is spending heavily on adding capacity, essentially pushing to pump more oil more quickly to fund a transition to a more diversified economy.
