OPEC+ committee recommends no change in oil output policy at virtual meeting
The logo of the OPEC is pictured at the OPEC headquarters on October 4, 2022.
Joe Klamar | Afp | Getty Images
A technical committee of the influential OPEC+ oil producers’ coalition has made no recommendation to change the group’s existing production policy in its latest meeting, according to three delegates.
The OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which tracks the alliance’s compliance with its output quota, convened digitally on Wednesday. The second OPEC+ technical group, the Joint Technical Committee that studies market fundamentals, canceled a virtual meeting originally scheduled for Jan. 31, according to a delegate.
Neither committee can outright decide OPEC+ production policy, but the JMMC can recommend plans for the review of coalition ministers.
The JMMC will next meet on April 3, one delegate said. The three delegates preferred to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
“The JMMC reaffirmed their commitment to the DoC which extends to the end of 2023 as agreed in the 33rd OPEC and Non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting (ONOMM) on 5th of October 2022, and urged all participating countries to achieve full conformity,” an OPEC+ communique said. The DoC refers to the Declaration of Cooperation, or the OPEC+ accord.
Three OPEC delegates had signaled to CNBC that the group would likely echo a ministerial December decision to roll over the production policy agreed in October. Under that provision, the group would nominally lower their production output quotas by 2 million barrels per day. Delivered cuts would sit below this figure, as actual production has long lagged output targets because of dwindling capacity, underinvestment and Western sanctions.
Questions had risen whether prospective increases in Chinese demand — the world’s largest crude oil importer, which is now softening the strict Covid-19 restrictions that lidded its purchases throughout most of last year — could push the producers’ alliance to raise their output.
“Global oil demand is set to rise by 1.9 mb/d in 2023, to a record 101.7 mb/d, with nearly half the gain from China following the lifting of its Covid restrictions,” Paris-based energy watchdog the International Energy Agency said in its latest monthly Oil Market Report, released on Jan. 18. OPEC+ countries must closely watch the development of Beijing’s demand, two delegates confirmed.
OPEC+ producers are also following the demand impact of firm inflation rates — with the European Central Bank, Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve set to decide their monetary policy this week — as well as access to sanctions-constricted Russian oil supplies. The IEA estimates that Russia’s crude oil production eased from 9.8 million barrels per day in November to 9.77 million barrels per day in December, after EU sanctions implemented on Dec. 5 interdicted seaborne imports of Moscow’s crude oil supplies. A second set of measures will replicate the ban on oil products imports and take effect on Feb. 5.
Non-G7 countries may continue to benefit from Western financial and shipping services to take delivery of Russian crude oil, provided they make their purchases under a specified price level, now set at $60 per barrel. The plan was designed by the G-7 to retain supply into the global markets, while simultaneously diminishing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war coffers to sponsor Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia has so far not signaled any intention to request an exemption from its production quota and continues as OPEC+ co-chair alongside Saudi Arabia, two delegates said.
OPEC+ has long taken a cautious approach in its decision-making, as it contends with market supply-demand fundamentals, pressure from international consumers to help ease the burden on households, and the need to incentivize further investment into spare capacity.
“I don’t think it is enough investment to bring additional capacity that will be needed to supply the market,” Saudi state-controlled Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble on Jan. 18. “It will not mitigate a situation where the demand is growing and offsetting the decline. You need additional investment elsewhere, globally, to meet global demand.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (right) and India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar enter a hall for their talks at Zinaida Morozova’s Mansion in Moscow on Aug. 21, 2025.
Alexander Zemlianichenko | Afp | Getty Images
India and Russia agreed Thursday to expand bilateral trade ties, signaling that U.S. tariff pressure on New Delhi over Russian oil purchases is unlikely to derail their partnership.
India currently faces additional tariffs of up to 50% on goods shipped to the U.S., after the Trump administration escalated tariff threats in response to its substantial imports of Russian energy.
The India-Russia relations had been among the “steadiest of the major relationships in the world after the Second World War,” Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at a joint press conference in Moscow.
Both countries vowed to boost bilateral trade, including increasing India’s exports of pharmaceuticals, agriculture and textiles to Russia to help reduce the current imbalance, Jaishankar said.
Bilateral trade between New Delhi and Moscow reached a record $68.7 billion for the year ended March 2025, with India’s increased oil imports contributing to a $59 billion deficit.
Other plans include sending Indian workers with skills in IT, construction and engineering to help Russia address its labor shortages, Jaishankar added.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector and Russian oil shipments to the Indian market are “making wide strides.” Both sides remain committed to implementing joint energy production projects in the Russian Far East and the Russian Arctic shelf, among other sites, he said.
“This strategic partnership … contributes to regional security and stability, which is undeniably important considering the challenging international circumstances that we are operating under,” Lavrov added.
Western governments have imposed sanctions on Moscow, arguing India’s increased imports helped bankroll Moscow’s war in Ukraine. New Delhi has pushed back, saying the U.S. administration requested the purchases to keep the markets calm, while pointing to the U.S. and European Union’s continued trade with Russia.
Russian embassy officials in New Delhi reportedly said Wednesday that oil shipments to India will continue despite U.S. pressure, adding that Moscow hoped a trilateral meeting with India and China would take place soon.
“Despite the political situation, we can predict that the same level of oil import [by India],” Roman Babushkin, the charge d’affaires at the Russian embassy in India, told a press briefing.
“Russia has been a close strategic partner of India since the 1970s and the Trump administration’s tariff threats are not going to change that,” said Daniel Balazs, a research fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
“On the contrary, it might even act as a catalyst,” Balazs added, prompting New Delhi to agree to a trilateral meeting that Moscow sought to broker with China.
India was the second-largest buyer of Russian oil, importing 1.6 million barrels per day in the first half of this year, up from 50,000 bpd in 2020, though still trailing China’s 2 million bpd imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Washington has not placed secondary tariffs on China for its Russian oil purchases. When asked about China’s role in Russian oil purchases, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that Beijing’s imports were considered to be less egregious because it had already been a major buyer even before Russia invaded Ukraine.
By contrast, Washington has escalated criticism of India in recent days, accusing the nation of profiteering from cheap Russian crude and threatening higher tariffs on Indian goods.
Ceasefire on the line
Trump’s true agenda appears to have little to do with Washington’s stated goal of curbing Moscow’s oil revenues, but extracting leverage from these trading partners, according to several geopolitical experts. These include securing a trade deal with New Delhi while pushing Putin for a ceasefire pact in Ukraine.
Last week, Trump rolled out a red carpet to greet Putin on his first visit to the U.S. in about a decade, sharing a ride with him in the presidential limousine to the venue. The meeting was held in Alaska, which was once a part of Russia.
The meeting did not appear to have produced meaningful steps toward a ceasefire in Ukraine and the Russian government has reiterated its opposition to any short-term ceasefire deal with Ukraine.
Speaking at the joint news briefing Thursday, Lavrov said he had briefed Indian officials on those talks.
“India’s approach continues to emphasize dialogue and diplomacy as essential to resolving differences,” Jaishankar said.
The storm hit. The power’s out. With all the damage around you, it looks like you might be without power for a few days (at least). But you planned for this. You have a home backup battery. What happens now?
If you’re considering a home backup battery, or you already have one and haven’t needed it yet, you might be wondering what you’re supposed to do when the inevitable happens. The good news is: you probably won’t have to do much at all.
Whether you’ve got an industry standard like the Tesla Powerwall, one of the new GM Energy Storage Bundles, or any of the other excellent home battery systems on the market, from your point of view they’ll function in pretty much the same way.
Step 1: do nothing
Modern home batteries are paired with an automatic transfer switch. That’s a switch, usually installed near your home’s electrical panel, that allows you to go from grid power, to battery, and back. And, because it’s automatic, you don’t have to do anything at all.
The instant the grid goes down, the automatic transfer switch recognizes the loss of power and automagically disconnects your house from the grid, seamlessly connecting it to your backup battery instead. Your lights stay on, the refrigerator keeps humming, and whatever else you’ve chosen to back up just keeps on keeping on. In some cases, the transition to battery power happens so smoothly that you might not even realize the neighborhood’s lost power, not noticing the neighbors’ dark windows until you step outside.
When the power comes back, that side of the switch gets energized, and it does its thing again, only in reverse – switching you back from battery to grid power and intelligently re-charging the battery in anticipation for the next blackout.
How long will my battery last?
Unfortunately, this is one of those questions that doesn’t have an easy answer. In the simplest terms, if you have a small battery and try to keep the AC running, you might run out of juice in a few hours. On the other hand, if you have great big battery and save its electrons for just the barest essentials (a few lights, a laptop, and a phone or radio, for example) you might never run out of power.
To put some numbers to that, a 31 cu. ft. Samsung RF32CG5400SRAA stainless steel refrigerator is rated at 785 kWh/year. That works out to about 2.15 kWh/day. Factor in 20-40% higher energy needs for warmer temperatures, a few daily door openings, defrost cycles, inverter losses, etc. and you’re looking at 18-22 kWh of usable battery capacity to keep that thing running for a full week on battery power. Now do that same math for every appliance you deem a “must have,” then do the “nice to haves,” and on down the line.
That doesn’t even address the other form of “last,” and whether you’re looking for a ten- or twenty- year battery solution.
What you need to do, in other words, is talk to the experts. Let them know what appliances you need to keep running, how long you want to prepare for, and let them do the math to help determine which battery solution is right for you.
I’ve included a video that covers the process of picking a solar battery from EnergySage (a trusted affiliate partner), below, and invite you to share some of your own backup battery-picking experiences in the comments.
How to pick a solar battery
Original content from Electrek.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
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Just days after Chevrolet beat the mighty Ford Mustang GTD’s Nürburgring track record with their Corvette ZR1 and ZR1X, Ford went back to the ‘Ring to reclaim some glory. They didn’t bring a Mustang along, though – they showed up with an electric van, and record-setting hot shoe Romain Dumas behind the wheel.
* it’s not your typical van. It’s a SuperVan.
Ford took back a fair bit of Chevy’s headline-grabbing glory this week when LeMans-winning driver Romain Dumas lapped the 12.9 mile Green Hell in just 6 minutes and 48.393 seconds – a blazing performance that makes the 2000 hp Ford SuperVan 4.2 the ninth fastest car to ever blast around the storied German racetrack.
Dumas is no stranger to the Nürburgring’s Nordschleife. He was first overall at the 2007 24 hour race there. He also holds the outright Nürburgring track record for EVs, which he set back in 2019 behind the wheel of the Volkswagen ID.R, completing the circuit in 6 minutes and 05.336 driving the Volkswagen ID.R.
The new ‘Ring-record comes just a few weeks after Ford beat out every other supercar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK with its all-electric SuperTruck, crushing the “competition” with their 1,400 hp prototype EV silhouette racer.
No word yet on what track record Ford plans to snatch with an EV next.
Electrek’s Take
If there were still Ford guys and Chevy guys, I like to think I’d be a Mopar guy – but even from the sidelines, I can tell that Chevy’s been having a rough couple of weeks, performance-wise. Not only did their top-shelf ZR1X get beaten by a Ford van (even if it is a SuperVan), but their clean sheet, future-thinking, pie-in-the-sky concept Corvette got beat to the hypercar headlines by a Chinese rival with 1,000 extra hp.
Take my advice, GM: it’s time to drag Warren Mosler back home from the Virgin Islands, figure out where Rod Trenne’s hiding, and get them to build you a proper, 900 kg electric ‘Vette. Y’all let me know if you need help setting that up.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Ford.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
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