The United Arab Emirates said it will call on its fellow OPEC+ members to boost oil output faster, a dramatic U-turn that could set the country against fellow members of the alliance led by Saudi Arabia and Russia.
"We favor production increases and will be encouraging OPEC to consider higher production levels,” Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s Ambassador to Washington, said in a statement on Wednesday, which was first reported by the Financial Times.
A few hours later, Energy Minister Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei appeared to temper the message on Twitter, saying the UAE is committed to the OPEC+ agreement. Already signs had emerged that the ambassador’s proposal would run into opposition, as Iraq’s oil minister told Bloomberg the group is pumping enough oil and producing more could hurt the market. According to a person familiar with the situation, the UAE hadn’t consulted other OPEC+ members before the ambassador made his statement.