As a fresh Middle East con?ict risks sending oil prices sharply higher, Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other key members of the Opec+ alliance are widely expected to announce an output increase, analysts say.
the virtual meeting by the eight members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied nations (Opec+) known as the ‘Voluntary Eight’ (V8) comes a day after the US and Israel launched an ongoing wave of strikes on Iran. Last year, the V8 group — comprising Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman — boosted production by around 2.9 million barrels per day (bpd) in total before announcing a three-month pause in output hikes. But now the picture has changed dramatically.
even before the con?ict erupted, the market had already priced in a growing geopolitical risk premium over months of US military build-up in the region.