February 18, 2022
SOARING – Oil prices have risen to seven-year highs in the past month. OPEC+ members have been unable to raise their output as high as their quotas, which are increasing by 400,000 barrels per day each month. The supply shortage amounts to about 1 million barrels day a volume Iran could easily cover if sanctions were to be lifted. Iran without sanctions exported about 2.5 million barrels a day, but is down now to about 1 million. Another reason for the low output is that the international oil firms aren’t big on new investments as they anticipate much lower crude sales in the long run. Saudi Arabia is the one major producing country that could pump much more but it isn’t.
