The United Arab Emirates has decided to leave the OPEC and OPEC+ organizations, which represent a large number of oil-producing countries. The country's government announced this according to the Reuters news agency.
The development is expected to weaken OPEC at a time when the oil-producing countries are already challenged by the war in the Middle East.
OPEC has so far consisted of 11 countries - in addition to the United Arab Emirates. OPEC+ consists of the same countries as well as a number of oil-producing countries that are not part of OPEC - including Russia. OPEC+ accounts for about half of the world's oil production.
The purpose of the associations is, among other things, to coordinate the oil policies of the member countries to ensure stable oil prices.
Now that the United Arab Emirates is leaving the associations on May 1, it could cause renewed unrest. Despite internal disagreements over quotas and geopolitics, OPEC has tried to appear united.
The Emirates' Energy Minister, Suhail Mohamed al-Mazrouei, told Reuters that the decision to leave OPEC and OPEC+ was made after a thorough review of the organizations' strategies in the energy sector.
- It is a political decision. It was made after a thorough review of current and future policies related to production levels, the minister said.
He added that the United Arab Emirates had not consulted Saudi Arabia or other countries prior to the announcement. The Emirates and other OPEC countries around the Persian Gulf have major problems exporting their oil.
It is normally shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, which lies between Iran and Oman. A fifth of the world's oil passes through the strait. But after the US and Israel launched air strikes against Iran on February 28, the strait has been closed, and Iran is threatening to attack ships sailing through.
This has caused the price of oil to rise significantly and has caused unrest and crisis in several Asian countries in particular. US President Donald Trump wrote on his social media account, Truth Social, on Tuesday that Iran has just "informed us that they are in a 'state of collapse'".
- They want us to "open the Strait of Hormuz" as soon as possible while they try to figure out their leadership situation, Trump claims.
It is not immediately clear from Trump's post how Iran has conveyed that message. There is no immediate other statement from the Iranian side.
/ritzau/
Text, graphics, images, sound, and other content on this website are protected under copyright law. DK Medier reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.
Customers with IP agreements/major customer agreements may only share Danish Offshore Industry articles internally for the purpose of handling specific cases. Sharing in connection with specific cases refers to journaling, archiving, or similar uses.
Customers with a personal subscription/login may not share Danish Offshore Industry articles with individuals who do not themselves have a personal subscription to Danish Offshore Industry.
Any deviation from the above requires written consent from DK Medier.
