This would be the first Mideast member to leave. Only Indonesia has ever left in the past. OPEC started in 1960.
In a statement, al-Kaabi said Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas, planned to increase its exports from 77 million tons of gas per year to 110 million tons. He also said Qatar wants to raise its oil production from 4.8 million barrels of oil equivalent a day to 6.5 million barrels.
Qatar is the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas. They plan to increase its exports of liquified natural gas from 77 million tons of gas per year to 110 million tons. Qatar wants to raise its oil production from 4.8 million barrels of oil equivalent a day to 6.5 million barrels.
Qatar has a population of 2.6 million people.
Between 5 and 6 June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Yemen, Egypt, the Maldives, and Bahrain all separately announced that they were cutting diplomatic ties with Qatar. Saudi Arabia and the UAE notified ports and shipping agents not to receive Qatari vessels or ships owned by Qatari companies or individuals. Saudi Arabia closed the border with Qatar. Saudi Arabia restricted its airspace to Qatar Airways.
Saudi statements regarding Qatar were contradictory. They claimed Qatar was supporting Iran and also claimed Qatar was funding Sunni extremists fighting against Iran.
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Not worth the effort. Besides, CENTCOM stands in the way….
Qatar has wanted to leave OPEC for a long time. Small fish in a big pond. Now they can without losing face. btw, the article is misleading on population. There are only about 280,000 Qataris, the rest of the 2.4 million are foreign temporary workers.
OPEC power has not waned as US production is up , as US production is still a minor part of OPEC production
Yeah, US oil production is up, so much so that OPEC’s power has waned. What a shame!
They might just do that, under the pretext of securing their flank if the low level war between Iran and SA should go hot.
The Saudi – US axis is getting Weaker with the Iran- Russia – China axis getting stronger, apparently. Yet another defeat for the US, who always backs the Saudis
This will happen soon after Drumpfie makes Mexico pay for the wall .
Just saying 😉
For perspective, any time in history prior to ~1900 a military power imbalance like what you see between SA and Qatar would have led to SA taking the comparatively resource rich Qatar by force with very little thought or deliberation. Qatar doesn’t have any geographical constraints to aid in its defense (e.g. it’s not an island or protected by a mountain range) and it doesn’t have any political allies that would have been able to project force effectively (Iran potentially could today, 100 years ago it would have been out of the question).
They have to finish ‘taking’ Yemen first.
SA should just ‘take’ Qatar.