MEOG: Calls for more Gulf oil output

This week, MEOG includes coverage of calls for oil producers to increase output while services firms take Baghdad’s side in its battle with the KRG.

French officials this week called for oil-producing countries to increase output, while suggesting that exports from Iran and Venezuela should be allowed to return to the market.

Speaking during the G7 summit in Germany, an official from the administration of President Emmanuel Macron said: “We need the oil-producing countries to produce more in an exceptional way,” noting there are “resources elsewhere that must also be explored.” The official called for “diversification of supplies” and said: “There is a knot to untie if necessary [between the US and Iran … so that Iranian oil … and Venezuelan oil can also be able to be put back on the market.”

The comments came ahead of revelations that during a call with Macron, the UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (MbZ) said that country was running full capacity. “I had a call with MbZ,” Macron told US President Joe Biden during the event: “He told me two things. I’m at a maximum, maximum. This is what he claims.”

Meanwhile, Baker Hughes, Halliburton and Schlumberger this week informed Iraq’s Ministry of Oil (MoO) that they would heed Baghdad’s warning not to engage further with the Kurdistan region’s energy sector.