Testy times for Opec’s crude dominance

AT THE start of this year, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), following consultation with its 10 allies (Opec+), released a statement underscoring the groupings’ united efforts to steady the oil market.

Indeed, over the past decade, the oil cartel has been adept at propping up the commodity amid major adversities – the oil slump in 2014/15 and the historic pandemic-spurred oil crash in 2020.

Most recently since the end of 2022, the Opec+ alliance implemented output cuts to support prices. This followed Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which fired up inflationary pressures and hurt the global economy and in turn, dented energy demand.