UAE wants unconditional oil production

The UAE Minister of Energy & Infrastructure Suhail Al Mazrouei said on Sunday that the UAE supports increasing production “unconditionally" and rejects "unfair" production baseline.

“UAE sacrificed the most, making 1/3 of our production idle for two years, but we did that for the sake of the group, the world economy,” he said in an interview with CNBC on Sunday. In a statement that was later released by the state news agency, WAM, the minister said that the UAE delivered "compliance of 103% throughout its 2-year term."

The UAE, which is a key member of the OPEC+, blocked some aspects of the pact on Friday. "The Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) unfortunately only put one option forward, to increase production on the condition of an extension to the current agreement, which would prolong the UAE’s unfair reference production baseline until December 2022, from the existing agreement end date of April 2022," said the minister in a statement carried by the state news agency WAM on Sunday.

In another interview with Bloomberg TV, the minister said that the UAE does not “threaten" to leave the bloc.

“If we don’t get a deal, we have an agreement to fulfill…. We are threatening to walk away from the agreement. UAE is not going to be an obstacle in front of anyone,” he said.

Without a deal, the OPEC+ alliance will keep tighter restraints on output with oil prices which is now trading around $75 a barrel.