UAE’s oil expansion gives it new weight within OPEC

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates’ resistance at OPEC meetings to extend deep supply cuts into 2021 is the start of a more assertive policy stance that could make it harder for the group’s de-facto leader, Saudi Arabia, to balance global oil supply.

The seeds of the emerging divergence have their roots in a major expansion in capacity in the UAE as well as an effort that is gathering pace for the country’s oil to become one of the few grades of crude used as a benchmark to price world supply.