UAE Announces It Will Leave OPEC As Of Next Month Amid Cool Relations With Other Members

The United Arab Emirates announced it will leave the OPEC cartel and the wider OPEC+ group as of next month amid cooler relations with other members, particularly Saudi Arabia.

The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the move had been rumored for a while as the UAE appeared to disagree with production restrictions decided by the group.

“This decision reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile, including accelerated investment in domestic energy production, and reinforces its commitment to a responsible, reliable, and forward-looking role in global energy markets,” the UAE said through its state-run news agency WAM.

“Following its exit, the UAE will continue to act responsibly, bringing additional production to market in a gradual and measured manner, aligned with demand and market conditions,” the country added.

But even if the UAE decides to ramp up production on its own, transit through the Strait of Hormuz, through where the country sends many of its exports, continues to be closed as the war between the U.S. and Iran continues.

Tehran has reportedly proposed the U.S. to end the war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz without a nuclear deal, allowing for energy to go back to transiting through the key waterway.

The proposal in question would leave nuclear negotiations for a later stage, bypassing the most sticking point of talks between the countries. Tehran’s argument is that such conversations would allow for a deal to be reached more quickly.

However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to convey the Trump administration’s rejection of the proposal, saying Tehran’s nuclear ambitions are the main reason for hostilities.

Speaking with Fox News, Rubio said that the “nuclear question is the reason why we’re in this in the first place.”

He went on to say that any agreement would need to be one that “definitively prevents them from sprinting toward a nuclear weapon at any point.”

Elsewhere, the CFO of the energy company Baker Hughes has reportedly said that the company is operating under the assumption that the Strait of Hormuz may not fully reopen for months.

Ahmed Moghal, the chief financial officer of the Houston-based oilfield services giant, told investors on the company’s first-quarter earnings call that they will assume that the conflict will continue through the end of June and that the strait may not be fully operational until the second half of 2026, CNBC noted.