Oil: “OPEC Plus” meeting postponed after rare dispute between Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates

“The whole group against a country, and it’s sad for me, but it’s reality,” Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told Bloomberg TV, noting that the Emirates United Arabs take a stand alone within the bloc of 23 countries. .

A source close to the OPEC Plus bloc told AFP that the meeting had been postponed indefinitely.

Since May, the alliance has gradually increased oil production, after cutting it more than a year ago when the Corona virus pandemic caused demand to drop significantly.

A current proposal calls for an increase in production of 400,000 barrels per day per month from August to December.

But talks have stalled over a proposal to extend these measures until the end of 2022.

The United Arab Emirates, which supports a short-term increase, demanded better terms on Sunday to extend the deal until 2022.

UAE Energy Minister Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei said in a TV interview on Sunday that the UAE “demands justice in the new agreement … and it is our sovereign right to demand reciprocity with the rest of the countries “.

He added in an interview with “Sky News Arabia”: “It is unreasonable to accept more injustice and sacrifice – we have been patient.”

Failure to deal could cause crude oil prices to rise sharply, threatening an already weak global recovery from the Corona virus pandemic.

But it also threatens to dismantle the OPEC Plus alliance, which could lead to a price war that would cause global economic chaos.

A similar dispute over oil shares between Saudi Arabia and Russia over the past year has led to a fierce price war that has exacerbated the drop in prices caused by the pandemic.

“There is clearly a rush to make the most of the next and possibly the latest oil boom,” said Karen Young, Middle East Institute, Standard & Poor’s Global Platts.