Agencies
OPEC has enough spare oil capacity to compensate for a full loss of Iranian supply if Zionist entity knocks out that country’s facilities but the producer group would struggle if Iran retaliates by hitting installations of its Gulf neighbors.
Iran fired hundreds of missiles at Zionist entity on Tuesday in response to Zionist entity airstrikes and attacks. Zionist entity’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran made a big mistake and would pay for it, and Iran threatened a crushing response if Zionist entity retaliated.
Zionist entity’s options include targeting Iranian oil production facilities among other strategic sites, US news website Axios reported on Wednesday citing Zionist entity officials. Iran is an OPEC member with production of around 3.2 million barrels per day or 3 percent of global output. Iranian oil exports have climbed this year to near multi-year highs of 1.7 million bpd despite US sanctions. Chinese refiners buy most of its supply. Beijing says it doesn’t recognize unilateral US sanctions.
“In theory, if we lost all Iranian production - which is not our base case - OPEC+ has enough spare capacity to make up for the shock,” said Amrita Sen, co-founder of Energy Aspects. OPEC+, which includes OPEC and allies like Russia and Kazakhstan, has been cutting production in recent years to support prices amid weak global demand. So the group is sitting on millions of barrels of spare capacity. Cuts by OPEC+ producers currently total 5.86 million bpd. Analysts estimated Saudi Arabia is able to raise output by 3 million bpd and the UAE by 1.4 million.
