The UAE’s exit from Opec next month is a shot across the bows to Saudi Arabia and a potential offering to US President Donald Trump, in the latest sign the war on Iran is exacerbating old tensions in the Gulf instead of uniting the region.
On the surface, the UAE’s exit from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) is a culmination of its long-running spat with Saudi Arabia over how much oil member states should be allowed to pump.
Until recently, Riyadh wanted to limit supply to support prices while the UAE favoured looser production.
“The UAE has always been on the side of volume strategy, and the Saudis have been on the side of price strategy,” Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst and head of research at Global Risk Management, told Middle East Eye.
This difference goes back to how the economies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE function. The former is home to 35 million people and holds more than double the UAE’s proven oil reserves.
