UAE To Exit OPEC After Nearly 60 Years
Key takeaways
- The EIA estimates that Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain shut in 7.5 million barrels per day of crude oil production in March, and 9.1 million barrels per day in April.
- However, the statement framed the exit as policy-driven rather than reactive, noting that "underlying trends point to sustained growth in global energy demand over the medium to long term."
- A compromise was eventually reached, but the episode exposed a fundamental tension: The UAE wants to produce more, and OPEC's quota system was holding it back.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photograph: Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story The UAE has announced that it will leave OPEC and OPEC+ effective May 1, ending a membership that began in 1967—four years before the UAE itself was founded as a country. This signals a turning point in the UAE's role in global energy.
The government statement, published on state news agency WAM, cited a comprehensive review of the country's production policy and capacity as the basis for the move, calling it a reflection of “the UAE's long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile."
The decision, it said, is rooted in national interest and a commitment to meeting what it described as the market's “pressing needs,” a reference to global demand that the UAE believes is being underserved at a time of significant supply disruption.