Baghdad is the new Vienna: What to expect from the OPEC+ meeting

Ahead of the upcoming OPEC+ meeting, countries belonging to the so-called ‘Great Eight’ (Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait, Algeria, Oman and Kazakhstan) have seen a flurry of activity. Picking up from where the previous OPEC+ meeting left, with the in-person meeting taking place in Riyadh rather than in Vienna, the leading energy officials of Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iraq met in Baghdad to discuss policy ahead of the upcoming meeting. Even by OPEC+’s standards, the policy coordination was staggering, starting with a phone call between Russia’s President Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (November 13), all the way through OPEC’s Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais meeting with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Novak in Moscow (November 22).