The UAE authorities currently have no plans to withdraw from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). On Friday, March 3, the agency reported Bloomberg.
Senior officials from the UAE denied the agency early reports from The Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Abu Dhabi was considering leaving OPEC due to disagreements with Saudi Arabia.
Bloomberg’s interlocutors stressed that the UAE authorities adhere to the agreements concluded under OPEC +, which will be valid until the end of this year. At the same time, they acknowledged that the UAE has been mulling over the past few years on the most beneficial alliances for its long-term development and monetization of increased production capacity.
Moreover, there have indeed been discussions in Abu Dhabi about a possible withdrawal from OPEC in the past two years, but in the end the general consensus was that there would be more negative consequences from such a move than positive ones.
In particular, the UAE was concerned about the risk of worsening relations with its allies in the Persian Gulf, such as Kuwait and Iraq.
Earlier in the day, it became known that the price of Brent and WTI oil fell sharply after The Wall Street Journal article that the UAE is considering leaving OPEC. Among the grounds, the publication mentioned the need for the country to reduce oil production, and this reduces state revenues.
