Will Biden’s Saudi visit help secure oil output hike, tame high prices?

Will Biden’s Saudi visit help secure oil output hike, tame high prices?

The White House believes the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has enough spare capacity to raise oil production.

Published: Wed 13 Jul 2022, 12:06 AM Last updated: Wed 13 Jul 2022, 12:09 AM

Will US President Joe Biden succeed in securing a pledge from Gulf oil producers to increase output to help cool down overheated prices during his much-anticipated Saudi visit this week?

The White House believes the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has enough spare capacity to raise oil production, but oil market analysts argue that even if Saudis agree to boost output with its limited spare capacity, it would have a limited impact on driving down the high fuel prices roiling the global economy.

The US and allies have been stepping up efforts to lobby Opec to hike output in an effort to tame high energy prices. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the only Opec members with significant volumes of unused output. They currently have a buffer of about three million barrels a day, official data from the countries indicate.

According to analysts at the International Energy Agency, that is about 3.0 per cent of global oil output, and roughly equivalent to the amount of Russian oil that could be kept off