Opec and allies rebuff Biden’s call to step up increase in oil output

Opec and allies rebuff Biden’s call to step up increase in oil output

Opec and its allies declined to accelerate plans to increase oil production, rejecting calls from President Joe Biden to help ease rising crude prices and increasing the odds of a retaliatory move by the US.

The Opec+ group, which has included Russia since 2016, said on Thursday it would stick with a plan formulated this summer of only gradually increasing oil output by 400,000 barrels a day each month, despite warnings of a growing deficit between supply and demand.

Saudi Arabia, Russia and the other members of the cartel have faced repeated pressure from the US and other major oil consumers to increase production faster, but for the third successive month the group has rejected those calls.

The group said in a statement it wanted to “provide clarity to the market at times when other parts of the energy complex outside the boundaries of oil markets are experiencing extreme volatility and instability”.

The announcement will disappoint the US, where Biden has blamed Saudi and Russian supply restraint for soaring petrol prices.

Bob McNally, head of Rapidan Energy Group and a former adviser to the George W Bush White House, said the decision by Opec+ could prompt a response from consumer countries.

“Given the complete rebuff by