UAE to exit OPEC from May 1 amid rising tensions with Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia remains an OPEC heavyweight despite waning influence, as rivalry with the UAE deepens over economic interests and regional politics, particularly in the Red Sea region

Dubai: The United Arab Emirates announced Tuesday that it will leave the oil cartel OPEC and its wider OPEC+ group effective May 1, a move rumoured for some time as the Emirates chafed under production restrictions and had increasingly frosty relations with neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The UAE had been a longtime member of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), first through its emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967 and later when the UAE became its own country in 1971.

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But the UAE has been increasingly trying to leverage its own foreign policy in the Middle East that has contradicted some positions of Riyadh over time — particularly as Saudi Arabia began to directly challenge the Emirates in trying to draw foreign investments as the kingdom opened up under assertive Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The UAE made the announcement via its state-run WAM news agency.

“This decision reflects the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile, including accelerated investment in domestic energy production, and reinforces its commitment to a responsible, reliable, and forward-looking role in global energy markets,” the UAE said.

“Following its exit, the UAE will continue to act responsibly, bringing additional production to market in a gradual and measured manner, aligned with demand and market conditions,” the country added.

Saudi Arabia has long been considered a heavyweight of OPEC, an oil cartel based in Vienna that has seen some of its market power wane as the United States increased its production of crude oil in recent years.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE increasingly have competed over economic issues and regional politics, particularly in the Red Sea area. The two countries had joined together in a coalition to fight against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels in 2015.

However, that coalition broke down into recriminations in late December, when Saudi Arabia bombed what it described as a weapons shipment bound for Yemeni separatists backed by the UAE.

Saudi broadcasters long based in Dubai, the economic hub of the UAE, have pulled back to the kingdom in recent months as tensions rose.