At its meeting on Sunday, the OPEC+ group decided to leave its production quotas unchanged. The cartel also announced that its next meeting will be in February and the one after that in June, marking the end of monthly meetings.
The group had agreed in November to reduce these quotas by a combined 2 million bpd, which amounted to an effective production cut of 1 million bpd in response to a weaker economic outlook.
The decision drew the ire of the Biden administration, which had repeatedly asked the de-facto leader of OPEC, Saudi Arabia, to boost oil production as it struggled to reduce retail fuel prices.
Now, the decision to keep production capped comes at the same time as the start date of an EU embargo on Russian crude plus a price cap supported by the G7 and Australia.
While OPEC+ officials said, per Reuters, that the price cap on Russian oil was not discussed at the meeting, analysts have noted that OPEC has cause for concern with regard to the price cap as it considers it a weapon that could someday be used against it.
