As OPEC+ Cuts Oil Production, the U.S. Takes Offense

OPEC+'s new oil production cuts expose the growing political faultline between Saudi Arabia and the United States, and send a political message that the bloc is rejecting the concept of Western-imposed price caps. The 24 members of OPEC+ agreed on Oct. 5 to cut their production target by 2.0 million barrels per day (bpd) through December 2023, marking the bloc's largest production cut since April 2020. In addition, all OPEC+ members agreed to extend their cooperation pact, which previously expired at the end of 2022, through the end of 2023. They also agreed that their monitoring committee will meet every two months, while OPEC+ more broadly will meet every six months, slowing down the bloc's monthly cadence. These actions come less than three months after U.S. President Joe Biden abandoned his campaign promise to treat Saudi Arabia as a "pariah" state due to the country's human rights violations and instead...