What happens next will determine whether the standoff could escalate into a conflict as destructive as last year’s price war.
“We do not want a price war,” said Iraq’s Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar. “And we do not want oil prices to rise to more than the current levels.”After several days of tense talks, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies abandoned their Monday meeting. A disagreement over how to measure production cuts upended a tentative deal to boost output and swiftly deteriorated into an unusually personal and public spat between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“With the oil market already in deficit and supply growth lagging oil demand growth,” the continuation of existing OPEC+ production limits is likely to send prices higher, said Giovanni Staunovo, a commodities analyst at UBS Group AG.