Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries with others including Russia, known as OPEC+, have agreed to raise production by 400,000 barrels per day. The decision was made at a virtual meeting of the group, held on Tuesday Jan. 4.
Later on the same day, the White House welcomed coordination with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and OPEC+ in addressing price pressures, a spokesperson said.
“We appreciate the close coordination over the recent weeks with our partners Saudi Arabia, UAE, and other OPEC+ producers to help address price pressures. We welcome OPEC+ decision to continue increases in production.”
OPEC+, which next meets on Feb. 2, sharply cut 10 million barrels per day in production during 2020 despite pressure from countries including the US to increase output beyond that number.
In prior months, the Biden administration blasted identical increases in production by OPEC+ as insufficient, and criticized the group of producers for hobbling the economic recovery from the recession induced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Biden administration, under pressure due to sharply higher inflation on a range of consumer goods, also took aim at possible price gouging by gasoline sellers and announced a release from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The decision not to hike output even more helped lift oil prices further. Brent crude rose 50 percent last year and has rallied so far in 2022, trading 2 percent up above $80 on Tuesday.
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