UAE's Opec exit seeks to hit Saudi Arabia where it hurts

UAE's Opec exit seeks to hit Saudi Arabia where it hurts Submitted by Mohamad Elmasry on Fri, 05/01/2026 - 10:12 Diverging alignments over Israel and the war on Iran are driving a deeper rift, as Abu Dhabi uses oil policy to challenge the regional influence of the bloc's most powerful member The Opec pavilion at the UN climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 10 December 2023 (Mumen Khatib/AFP) Off When the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced on Tuesday that it intended to exit the 12-member, six-decade-old Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), the move was read by some analysts as a purely economic one. On its face, this is not an unreasonable initial interpretation: the UAE has long wanted to break free of Opec oil output constraints to leverage its massive production capacity; the US-Israel war on Iran has produced economic volatility across the Gulf; and leaving Opec could produce long-term economic benefits for Abu Dhabi. Unlike Saudi Arabia , which relies heavily on higher oil prices to balance its budget, the UAE has invested heavily in expanding production capacity and prefers a high-volume export strategy, even if it results in lower per-barrel oil prices.