Olivér Hortay reminded: the oil majors are meeting again to agree on production quotas. The media has a traditionally privileged role in this type of meeting, as OPEC is able to send a signal about the development of supply through the press. The cartel consistently emphasizes that its decisions serve to maintain the stability of the oil market, which in reality of course means the stability of its own revenues.
However, from the point of view of communication, previously the two typically coincided and OPEC was not interested in unexpected, drastic changes in direction. It is no coincidence that the intention to increase or decrease the quotas was mostly “leaked” in advance and only the extent was in question at the meeting.
However, Western sanctions radically changed the situation and OPEC’s movements became completely unpredictable. The West expected to increase the quotas even after the American and European oil embargoes and the G7 price ceiling, but they did not happen, and last fall the cartel reduced its production
the expert pointed out.
And a month ago, OPEC decided on another cut, so that even the suddenly convened meeting caught the Western countries by surprise. Finally, Saudi Arabia simply banned all major Western media groups, such as Reuters or Bloomberg, from the next scheduled meeting.
“The problem is more serious than it seems at first. Since the sanctions of the G7 countries, the West has been getting less and less information about the oil market. A non-negligible part of the deliveries is carried out by shadow fleets, which are provided by new Eastern companies with unknown ownership backgrounds, mostly at unknown prices. And OPEC’s new practice will force the West into a position of following in terms of production as well,” warned the business manager.
