By Nneka Nwogwugwu
OPEC and its allies on Thursday decided to stick to their original plan to boost output by 400,000 barrels per day (bpd), rejecting pleas by United States President Joe Biden to pump more oil to cool red-hot energy prices.
The US, Japan and India had urged the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led by Russia, a grouping known as OPEC+, to boost crude production to meet surging demand as nations around the world roll back COVID-19 restrictions and ramp up production.
“The current demand-supply mismatch has pushed oil prices above $80 per barrel [for] Brent for more than a month, which has been a short-term boon for OPEC+ producers but pain for consumers, in particular countries worried about inflation and post-pandemic economic growth,” Senior Oil Markets Analyst at Rystad Energy Louise Dickson said in a note.
Following Thursday’s news, global benchmark Brent crude futures were up 0.30 percent at $82.24 per gallon as of 11:18am in New York (15:18 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate futures were down 0.16 percent at $80.73 per barrel.
Last year, OPEC+ dramatically slashed production in response to gutted oil demand. In August, it started ramping up production by 400,000 barrels per day. Under the current plan, all of last year’s cuts should be phased out by September 2022.
