23 members of the OPEC+ coalition gathered today (Sunday, July 18) while the 18th meeting of the coalition failed due to the opposition of the UAE.

At the 18th OPEC+ meeting, the UAE opposed extension of the production reduction agreement until December 2022, in addition to calling for a change in production. The UAE believes that the production reduction agreement, whose validity is until April 2022, should not be extended.

Informed sources said before the meeting that the UAE was able to obtain Riyadh's agreement to change production base line on the country's agreement to extend the implementation of the supply reduction agreement.

UAE Energy Minister Soheil al-Mazrouei, however, said in an official statement that he had not yet reached an agreement with OPEC+ on reducing oil production.

UAE’s production baseline in the April 2020 agreement was 3.168 million barrels based on October 2018 output. It wants its base production to reach 3.7 million to 3.8 million barrels per day. Informed sources, however, say that it has been agreed to change the production baseline of this country to 3.65 million barrels.

The failure of the 18th OPEC+ meeting pushed up oil prices to their highest level in six years and then slightly adjusted. Brent crude was at $73.59 a barrel on Friday (July 16) and WTI crude was at $71.81 a barrel.

OPEC and its allies, in the form of the OPEC+, cut their oil supplies by 9.7 million barrels a day in May 2020 in response to the collapse in demand amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, and the deal was scheduled to expire in April 2022.