NEW YORK, June 6 (UPI) -- With OPEC members acting unilaterally in response to Libyan declines, the cartel's decision on production quotas might not bear much weight, an analysis finds.
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meet Wednesday in Vienna to consider production quotas amid concerns over higher energy prices.
U.S. officials were in a political frenzy in May as energy prices reached post-recession highs. Moscow, meanwhile, raised export fees to keep energy companies from fleeing a more modest domestic market.
The conflict in Libya has left 1.4 million barrels per day out of the energy market. OPEC members could agree to modest production quota increases for the first time since 2008 but unilateral action could undermine their decision, Bloomberg News reports.
An analysis from Eurasia Group finds that any unilateral action from Saudi Arabia could sway energy markets.
"Saudi Arabia appears to have begun to ramp up crude oil production over the past month in response to the loss of Libyan supplies and growing demand," the group was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. "At this point, with only Saudi Arabia and the other (Persian) Gulf producers holding meaningful spare capacity, formal OPEC decisions continue to be much less important than unilateral Saudi decisions."
