Finance & economics | In the shadows

OPEC heavyweights are cheating on their targets

That is tamping down global oil prices

An employee walks along a pipeline carrying crude oil from the Juaymah Tank Farm in Saudi Aramco's Ras Tanura oil refinery, Saudi Arabia
Photograph: Getty Images

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies, a group that produces 40% of the world’s crude, wants to keep oil prices high and stable. Lately they have certainly been stable, if not very high. Despite the recent death of Iran’s president and the escalating war in Gaza, prices of Brent crude, the global benchmark, have stayed within $2 of $82 a barrel since the start of May.

This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “In the shadows”

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