“The alignment within OPEC+ is strong, politically and with regard to oil,” expert Abhi Rajendran told Newsweek. “The U.S. was never going to crack that.”
The decision made by Russia, Saudi Arabia and other nations that make up the world’s oil cartel and its partners to significantly slash production will likely produce effects felt across the globe the globe — including in the U.S., where President Joe Biden has appealed to Riyadh and other oil-rich Arab states for greater output while at the same time maintaining economic pressure on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.
As the expanded format of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) opted Wednesday to cut current baseline production by about 2 million barrels per day (BPD), an effective drop of around 1 million BPD, the limits of the Biden administration’s pressure tactics were on full display.
Reacting to the news, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Wednesday, “It’s clear that OPEC+ is aligning with Russia with today’s announcement.”
And in a joint statement, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said Biden “is disappointed by the shortsighted decision by OPEC+ to cut production quotas while the global economy is dealing with the continued negative impact of [Russian President] Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.”
“At a time when maintaining a global supply of energy is of paramount importance,” the statement added, “this decision will have the most negative impact on lower- and middle-income countries that are already reeling from elevated energy prices.”
U.S. consumers could feel the pain as well in the form of higher fuel prices, as they did earlier this year. The White House has been fighting for months to bring those prices down, and Sullivan and Deese said Biden would order the Department of Energy to release another 10 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve next month.
Their statement said that Biden would continue to release barrels from the national reserve “as appropriate,” while calling on energy companies “to keep bringing pump prices down” and consulting with members of Congress for further measures.
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