Opec cut oil production

Saudi Arabia is seeking to raise oil prices at a crucial meeting today in Vienna in a move set to anger the US and aid Russia. The size of the cut is still to be agreed but Saudi Arabia and Russia are expected to try to take 1mn-2mn barrels a day off the market, or more, although the reductions could be phased in over several months. «This is not the Saudi Arabia of old and the US has maybe been a little slow or unwilling to acknowledge that in energy matters,» said Raad Alkadiri, an analyst at Eurasia Group. Russia’s top energy official Alexander Novak is expected to attend and is understood to support a substantial production cut, with Russia’s oil already trading at a large discount as European buyers have turned away.

The tensions between Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude oil exporter, and the US, the world’s largest consumer, comes as analysts warn of a deepening global energy war triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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