As oil eyes $100, consumers ask Opec+ for more supplies

As oil eyes $100, consumers ask Opec+ for more supplies

Bloomberg / London

For the past year, oil consuming countries have become increasingly anxious at crude’s resurgence: first to $50 a barrel, then $75 and now to more than $85. And when Vladimir Putin, one of the leaders of the Opec+ alliance, warned that $100 a barrel was a distinct possibility, the alarm bells really started ringing.

Now, as quickening inflation pushes some central banks toward earlier-than-expected interest rate hikes, the US India, Japan and other consuming countries are putting the strongest diplomatic pressure on the alliance in years.

Behind closed doors, an intense campaign is being waged to persuade Opec+ to speed up its output increases, according to multiple diplomats and industry insiders involved in the contacts. The group, which meets virtually on November 4 to review policy, is currently boosting output at a rate of 400,000 barrels a day each month.

The private efforts come on top of recent public appeals. The Biden administration is increasingly alarmed by rising gasoline prices that have reached a 7-year high, and has been calling on Opec+ for weeks to pump more oil. Japan, the world’s fourth-largest oil consumer, took the rare step of adding its voice to those calls in late October