The oil cartel Opec continues to open its taps only slightly. It remains to be seen whether the plus will have a positive effect on petrol prices.

The oil alliance Opec remains true to its line of only moderately opening the oil tap. The cartel from more than 20 countries will increase production by 648,000 barrels (159 liters each) a day in August, OPEC announced after its monthly online meeting on Thursday in Vienna.

There have been repeated calls recently that OPEC should have a dampening effect on the sharp rise in petrol prices with a higher offer.

Overall, OPEC soon reached the production level from before the corona pandemic. However, there are also problems. According to Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch, many countries are already unable to meet their funding targets due to a lack of production capacity, including Angola and Nigeria in particular.

Often not arrived on the market

“Not all of the promised production increases have reached the market by a long shot,” said Fritsch. Libya is now having difficulties again. According to experts, Russian oil production will continue at a high level. “So far, Russia’s production has not suffered as much as many initially assumed, but it is still well below the pre-war level,” reported Fritsch. While the EU intends to do without a large part of Russian oil from the end of the year, countries such as China and India have significantly increased their imports. Moscow is offering its oil at a price discount of around 25 to 30 percent compared to Brent oil.

Oil policy is also likely to play an important role in US President Joe Biden’s upcoming trip to the Middle East. Biden will visit Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia July 13-16. Saudi Arabia is also scheduled to attend a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which will also be attended by representatives from Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

It is unclear whether the foreseeable OPEC production increase will lower the high gasoline prices. The previous decisions of the cartel had no lasting effects. Opec has a world market share of around 45 percent. The next online meeting is scheduled for August 3rd.