22 feb 2022: Even though oil is all set to hit US$100 a barrel  amidst all the “Ukraine conflict”, Several key OPEC+ members don’t really see a need for gung-ho pumping.

According to Iraq and Nigeria gradually increasing the production should be enough to balance the market and the group doesn’t really need to be so zealous, and many delegates echoed that view privately on Tuesday, saying it wouldn’t make a difference even if crude hit triple digits.

The 23-nation alliance, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, next meets on March 2. It is factoring in growth in output from non-OPEC+ members such as Brazil and Canada and doesn’t want to see any increase in commercially-stored oil around the world, according to Iraq’s Energy Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar.

“The market will have more and more oil so we think there’s no need to diverge from today’s strategy”, he said in an interview in Qatar. “We will not create any growth to the commercial storage. We will secure all the demand by making the required supply.”

Brent crude rose 3.6 per cent to US$98.94 a barrel as of 10:04 a.m. in London, extending this year’s jump to 27 per cent. 

Tuesday’s gain rode on the back of Russian President Vladimir Putin announcement that he’s recognizing two self-proclaimed separatist republics in eastern Ukraine and plans to send “peacekeeping forces” to the region in a dramatic escalation of the conflict. Moscow has maintained their word as to not having any plans to invade Ukraine.

Nigeria’s energy minister, Timipre Sylva, backed Jabbar’s comments.

“We won’t do anything extraordinary at this time because we are expecting at lot of production” from outside of OPEC+, Sylva told reporters at the same event. There’s “no need at all to bring on more barrels than the current plan.” 

Several of OPEC+’s biggest producers want to continue to provide 400,000 barrels a day of crude to the market each month, 

Even though some major oil importers have called on OPEC+ to pump faster and put pressure on the likes of Saudi Arabia to use up some of their spare capacity. Iraq’s Jabbar feels that  it would be “unfair” for any OPEC+ state to raise output beyond its quota, despite many members struggling to reach theirs.

Last week, the International Agency Energy Agency, which advises rich countries, said OPEC+ was pumping almost 1 million barrels a day below its target.

“We have come from the recovery from COVID,” the Iraqi minister said. “It is not fair that you will give the increase just for some countries.”

Iraq was unable to meet its output target last month because of bad weather at ports. The country should be able to meet its quota for February of around 4.3 million barrels a day, he said.