The United Arab Emirates is quitting OPEC oil cartel after nearly 60 years

UAE's Minister of Energy and Industry Suhail al-Mazrouei is shown arriving for an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria, on June 4, 2023. Joe Klamar/AFP via hide caption toggle caption Joe Klamar/AFP via The United Arab Emirates has announced that it's leaving OPEC, the cartel representing major state-owned oil producers, on May 1. In an announcement posted on state-owned media, the UAE wrote that the 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." OPEC includes major state-owned oil producers like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran; the UAE joined the group nearly 60 years ago, just a few years after the cartel was established. As a group, OPEC members set their oil production levels in an attempt to balance oil markets and maintain oil prices high enough to support their national budgetary needs. (If every country produced as much oil as they possibly could, the rules of supply and demand would send crude oil prices down sharply and reduce their incomes.) In more recent years, through the broader OPEC+ alliance, countries like Mexico and Russia have also agreed to negotiate with OPEC on production levels. …