OPEC+ Delay Leaves Oil – And Gasoline -Prices On The Rise

OPEC+ Delay Leaves Oil – And Gasoline -Prices On The Rise

That $80 per barrel oil that Goldman Sachs has predicted for the end of summer since May could be here a little sooner than expected. This became a near certainty after the OPEC+ countries broke off their Monday effort to agree to further increases in their collective oil exports, putting further negotiations off until their next meeting without establishing a firm date for when that will happen. Crude prices jumped on the news, with the international benchmark Brent elevating above $77 per barrel and no apparent impediment to a continuing upwards trajectory. The Monday meeting was a continuation of earlier discussions held by the cartel on July 1 and 2, which broke down when the United Arab Emirates refused to agree to a proposal to extend the OPEC+ arrangement, currently scheduled to expire at the end of April, 2022, through the end of that year. Representatives of Saudi Arabia had attempted to negotiate an accommodation with the UAE, which is dissatisfied with its current production quota, over the weekend, but those talks failed to bear fruit. As a result of the failure to reach some accommodation, OPEC+ is left without an arrangement to add additional production to the global market