{"id":388586,"date":"2026-01-05T00:10:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388586\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T00:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T00:10:13","slug":"opec-keeps-oil-output-steady-despite-political-turmoil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/388586\/","title":{"rendered":"OPEC+ keeps oil output steady despite political turmoil"},"content":{"rendered":"

OPEC+ kept oil output<\/a> unchanged on Sunday after a quick meeting that avoided discussion of the political crises affecting several \u200dof the \u200bproducer group\u2019s members.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s meeting of eight members of OPEC+, which pumps about half the world\u2019s oil, came after oil prices fell more than 18% in 2025 \u2013 their steepest yearly drop since 2020 \u2013 amid growing oversupply concerns.<\/p>\n

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE flared last month over a \u2060decade-long conflict in Yemen, when a UAE-aligned group seized territory from the Saudi-backed government. The crisis triggered the biggest split in decades between the former close allies.<\/p>\n

And on Saturday, the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington would take control of \u200cthe country until a transition to \u200da new administration becomes possible, without saying how this would be achieved.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, oil markets are being \u200cdriven less by supply\u2013demand fundamentals and more by political uncertainty,\u201d said Jorge Leon, \u2060head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy and a former OPEC official. \u201cAnd OPEC+ is clearly \u200bprioritizing stability over action.\u201d<\/p>\n

The eight OPEC+ members \u2013 Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria and Oman \u2013 raised oil output targets by around 2.9 million barrels per day in 2025, equal to almost 3% of world oil demand, to regain market share.<\/p>\n

The eight members agreed in November \u200bto pause output hikes for January, February and March due to relatively low demand in the northern hemisphere winter. Sunday\u2019s brief online meeting affirmed that policy and did not discuss Venezuela, one OPEC+ delegate said.<\/p>\n

The eight countries will next meet on Feb. 1, OPEC+ said.<\/p>\n

OPEC has in the past managed to overcome many internal rifts, such as over the Iran\u2013Iraq War, \u2060by prioritizing market management over political disputes.<\/p>\n

Yet the group is facing other crises, with \u2060Russian oil exports falling due to U.S. sanctions over its war in Ukraine, and Iran facing protests and \u200cU.S. threats of intervention.<\/p>\n

Venezuela has the world\u2019s largest oil reserves, bigger even than those of OPEC\u2019s leader Saudi Arabia, but its oil production has plummeted due to years of mismanagement and sanctions.<\/p>\n

Analysts said it is unlikely to see any meaningful boost to crude output for years, even if U.S. oil majors \u200cdo invest the billions of dollars in the country that Trump promised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OPEC+ kept oil output unchanged on Sunday after a quick meeting that avoided discussion of the political crises…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-388586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}