If the U.S. passes the NOPEC bill, a bill designed to pave the way for lawsuits against OPEC members for market manipulation, the oil market could face even more chaos.
The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners in OPEC+ led by Russia decided this week they would not increase their target production figure for next month.
Delegates from the group said OPEC+ was set to agree another monthly increase of 432,000 barrels per day in its production target for June
Oil prices climbed on Tuesday on easing concerns about demand in China after Shanghai relaxed some COVID-19-related restrictions and OPEC warned it would be impossible to increase output enough to offset lost Russian supply.
IEA is set to release 60 million barrels of strategic stocks above and beyond the US 180-million-barrel stock draw which helped in pushing the prices below $100 per barrel.
OPEC is meeting today for its regular monthly review of production policy. This time, no one seems to expect surprises, and the reason is that in the past couple of months, the cartel and its allies in OPEC+ led by Russia have been in remarkable sync. And they appear to have had enough of consumers’ pressure.
Oil prices tumbled more than US$5 on Monday as fears over weaker fuel demand in China grew after financial hub Shanghai launched a two-stage lockdown to contain a surge in COVID-19 infections.
Self-sanctioning amid a global backlash against Russia has left analysts dividend in their forecasts for the future of Russian oil.
In the short term, Saudi Arabia has made it clear that it has no intention of increasing oil production beyond the current OPEC+ plan.
Oil prices shot above US$139 a barrel this month, hitting peaks not seen since 2008, as Western sanctions tightened on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine and disrupted oil sales from Russia, helping to fuel inflation that was already rising.