The OPEC+ meeting is just days away and it seems all but certain that the result will be some sort of increase in production , although the magnitude of the output increase remains to be seen. Another thing that seems all but certain is that the meeting will be incredibly contentious, with Saudi Arabia and Russia likely peeling off from the rest of the group. Russia has proposed an aggressive 1.5 mb/d production increase from the OPEC+ group, but many of the OPEC members oppose any increase at all. The gap between these two positions is so wide that it seems irreconcilable. Saudi Arabia is trying to mediate, and is trying to balance competing interests – it wants to keep up the group’s cohesion, while also trying to adequately supply the market and solidify a more permanent cooperative framework with Russia. The Saudis also want to keep prices up […]