According to media reports on Sunday (October 31), a US official revealed that in order to increase oil supply and alleviate the current energy crisis, the United States is working with some energy consumers to continue to put pressure on OPEC+. The official also said the countries would also discuss how their next steps would be if the pressure continued to show no results and OPEC+ still refused to increase production.
It should be known that with the recovery of the global economy, the supply of oil has gradually lagged behind its demand, coupled with the current global energy crisis, the high price of natural gas and coal, further boosting the demand for oil.
However, OPEC+ only slightly eased the supply restrictions imposed last year, so that the oil market is still in a state of supply and demand imbalance, and international oil prices continue to rise. According to the market, as of October 29 this year, the US oil closed at $83.3 / barrel, after its price had rushed to a high of $85 / barrel. In addition, domestic gasoline in the United States has also risen by more than 40% this year.
High oil prices have further exacerbated the Concerns of the American people about high inflation, so the United States has twice pressured OPEC+ to "open the floodgates" to increase oil supply. The country began to "sit still". In August and October, U.S. Department of Energy officials also blamed OPEC+, arguing that the "culprit" responsible for the high oil prices was OPEC+, because the control of the entire oil market was in their hands.
However, OPEC+ is not a "fuel-saving lamp", in the face of the United States' repeated pressure to increase production, the organization's member states are still unmoved, insisting on only 400,000 barrels per month to increase production. Among them, Saudi Arabia said that since the epidemic has not completely subsided, this will put pressure on the international oil market, and the gas machine cannot be completely converted into fuel oil, and the energy crisis has little effect on the oil demand boost, so the country believes that OPEC+ is right to maintain a cautious attitude towards oil supply.
Saudi Arabia also said that the country will continue to seek a balance point in the energy market next. However, the United States does not seem to want to give Saudi Arabia "balance" time, and now that the country plans to pull more energy consumers together to put pressure on OPEC+, OPEC will face greater pressure to increase production.
Text | Zhang Jianlin Title | Zeng Yunzi Figure | Lu Wenxiang | Lu Jiamin