Pressured by Biden, OPEC+ meets to decide oil production

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — OPEC and allied oil-producing countries will decide Thursday how much oil they think the global economy needs, with President Joe Biden urging Saudi Arabia and Russia to increase production and lower U.S. gasoline prices — so far to no avail.

The OPEC+ alliance, made up of OPEC members led by the Saudis and non-members led by Russia, has moved cautiously to restore production cuts made during the coronavirus pandemic, aiming to support prices that collapsed during the COVID-19 downturn and have since surged to seven-year highs.

With the global economic recovery and demand for fuel picking up, the alliance has laid out a road map to add 400,000 barrels per day each month into next year to slowly restore the pandemic cuts.

That hasn't gone down well with Biden, who has made repeated calls to pump more oil. The U.S. used the Group of 20 summit last weekend in Rome to consult with other oil-consuming countries on how to exert influence over the producing countries and what they might do if the Saudis and Russians continue to hold back.

The caution from OPEC+ means higher prices worldwide and more revenue for producing countries. Slower increases also mean less risk of increasing production too fast and sending prices suddenly lower as the group braces for the possibility of more economic turbulence from COVID-19 outbreaks this winter or from supply chain backups, labor shortages and rising consumer prices that have threatened the global recovery.

Extremely high natural gas prices — part of a global fossil fuel crunch — have helped push up oil prices as power generators in Asia switch from gas to oil.

Oil prices fell ahead of the OPEC+ meeting on speculation that the U.S., possibly in coordination with other countries, could try to quell the...