Russia Oil: OPEC mulls excluding Russia from oil-production deal

Some OPEC members are considering the idea of suspending Russia in an oil production deal as Western sanctions hurt the nation’s ability to produce more, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing OPEC delegates.

Exempting Russia could pave the way for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other OPEC members to produce more to meet the production targets.

Oil prices have soared to above $100 a barrel since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and countries including the United States have urged a hike in production to bring prices down.

OPEC+ is set to stick to an oil production deal agreed last year at its meeting on June 2 and raise July output targets by 432,000 barrels per day, six OPEC+ sources told Reuters last week, rebuffing Western calls for a faster increase to lower surging prices.

OPEC+ was formed in 2016 and assigned production cuts among its members to keep oil markets stable and act against price collapses, particularly as economies shrank sharply during the COVID pandemic.

Russia is a leading member of OPEC+, along with some ex-Soviet states and other countries.