ago, during the covid pandemic, that the whole world relied on that and actuallyjoined in that alliance. the us government encouraged us companies to participate in that when oil prices crashed and actually hit briefly negative levels. so it s been important for global energy stability. it s not about, you know, necessarily friendship or political alliance. we ve seen in the past opec members sometimes at war with each other, iraq and iran during the 1980s for an eight year war, and yet managed to continue to collaborate partner within opec. i d also like to just take the opportunity to remember and honour secretary general mohammad barkindo, who s a good friend, who passed away recently and suddenly and his end of his tenure in opec. he was a great figure in the global energy stage and played a key role in that diplomacy
producers, have really said that they are looking to keep russia part of the group. they re not looking to break with moscow, despite the escalating western sanctions, despite their requests from countries like the united states for more opec barrels. so i think that opec are going to try to find a way to put some more supply on the market, while keeping russia within the producer group. but one source of potential tension that we should be watching for over the coming months is that russia has been discounting their barrels in the key asian markets. they are now the top supplier in india. they have essentially taken iraq s number one spot. and so the question is, how are they opec producers going to like to have to compete with russia when it comes to price for the all important asia market? back in march, helima, president biden released petrol oil reserves for six months. is that going to be extended? well, this was the largest release
up with the climate finance commitment that you made that was supposed to have been paid two years ago, just $100 billion, dwarfed by what s being spent within europe and within the us, even though emissions in those continents have been falling for decades now. and now you want our natural resources and you re willing to, you know, put your climate commitments to one side, which is what we ve seen a little bit in the last week, even in europe. but you say supply is tight, but, correct me if i m wrong, opec could increase its supply, couldn t it? so there s actually currently very little supply capacity, spare capacity in the opec system. currently, opec members are struggling to produce even their target quotas as they are. there may be some, or there is likely some, in saudi arabia. but not very much. is it a million barrels, less than a million barrels? and perhaps some hundreds
that are experiencing production problems. libya, for example, is down by abouti million barrels because of civil strike in that country. so there is real concern that as we head into the start date of these serious sanctions on russian energy exports, if saudi exhausts everything it has right now, there s not going to be really anything left to deal with any additional disruption. helima, we ve talked about opec but there is also 0pec+, which russia is a part of. do you think the relationship, russia s relationship with opec will change because of the war? well, this is a great question. because russia has been essentially the co chair of the 0pec+ arrangements since 2016, when you had russia essentiallyjoin the producer group to really put a floor under prices. and the saudis and the emiratis, the two big middle eastern
in those critical years. but do you think the relationship with opec and russia is part of the reason that we are not seeing many of the opec nations joining in reason that we are not seeing many of the opec nationsjoining in on the sanctions? 50 of the opec nations “oining in on the sanctions?h of the opec nations “oining in on the sanctions? so i think they are two separate the sanctions? so i think they are two separate issues. the sanctions? so i think they are two separate issues. sanctions i the sanctions? so i think they are l two separate issues. sanctions are about trade, where as opec is about. the opec members don t trade oil with each other, they are exporters of oil to the global market, coming together to set targets and quotas to help manage in global energy supplies. so no matter what geopolitical issues are going on with the world or even conflicts, and i mentioned in the middle east we have added many conflicts in the past, that cooperation for global energy p