New Delhi: In a shock move, the United Arab Emirates Tuesday announced it was quitting the oil export bloc OPEC from 1 May, amid its growing rift with Iran and Saudi Arabia in the backdrop of West Asia war.
Both Iran and Saudi Arabia are part of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
“The UAE’s decision to exit from OPEC reflects a policy-driven evolution aligned with long-term market fundamentals. We thank OPEC and its member countries for decades of constructive cooperation. We remain committed to energy security, providing reliable, responsible, and lower-carbon supply while supporting stable global markets,” the UAE’s Energy Minister Suhail Mohamed AlMazrouei wrote in a statement on X.
The UAE has quit OPEC+ too.
Abu Dhabi joined the OPEC in 1967, seven years after it was founded. It was the third-largest producer in the OPEC in February 2026 (behind only Saudi Arabia and Iraq).
Its departure would remove one of the group’s most important Gulf members amid a rupture with Saudi Arabia, the group’s de facto leader. A split between the Gulf region’s leading powers came into the open in December and January 2026 amid disagreements over the civil war in Yemen, where Abu Dhabi and Riyadh supported rival factions.
The UAE was the biggest target of missile and drone attacks for weeks by Iran. Tehran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has also severely constrained the UAE’s ability to export oil.
The energy ministry said the decision was based on the UAE’s national interest following a comprehensive review of its production policy and capacity.
The UAE’s decision to exit from OPEC reflects a policy-driven evolution aligned with long-term market fundamentals. We thank OPEC and its member countries for decades of constructive cooperation. We remain committed to energy security, providing reliable, responsible, and…
— سهيل المزروعي (@HESuhail) April 28, 2026
“We reaffirm our appreciation for the efforts of both OPEC and the OPEC+ alliance and wish them success,” the UAE’s energy ministry said in a statement. The UAE said its exit from OPEC would give it more flexibility to respond to market dynamics.
The UAE, a major oil exporter and a regional financial hub closely aligned with the United States, has repeatedly voiced frustration with the regional response to Iranian strikes during the ongoing conflict. Officials have privately and publicly suggested that collective security arrangements among Gulf and Arab states have proven inadequate in the face of escalating threats.
A Wall Street Journal exclusive last week had reported that the UAE discussed a potential currency swap line with the US, as a financial lifeline amid the West Asia war and has threatened to conduct oil sales and other transactions in alternative currencies, including the Chinese yuan if there is a dollar shortage.
The UAE’s exit would be a big win for the US and Donald Trump, who has repeatedly accused OPEC of keeping oil prices artificially high, and has argued that the United States’ security commitments to Gulf states are not matched by their energy policies.
India imports a significant portion of its crude oil from OPEC countries. It accounted for about 51.5 percent of the total imports in 2024. But New Delhi’s major suppliers include Russia, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
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Significance of OPEC
The OPEC was formed in Baghdad in 1960 by Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. The member states produce about 40 percent of the world’s oil, and their exports make up around 60 percent of global petroleum trade, according to a World Economic Forum report.
Its objective is “to coordinate and unify petroleum policies among member countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers; an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations; and a fair return on capital to those investing in the industry”.
OPEC currently has 13 members, with the five founders having since been joined by Algeria, Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Libya, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates. Its headquarters is in the Austrian capital Vienna.
With the United Arab Emirate quitting, the membership will now be 12.
In 2016, the OPEC formed an alliance with other 10 oil-producing nations to create OPEC+. The move to create OPEC+ was a response to falling crude oil prices partly caused by a huge increase in US shale oil production since 2011.
In 2021, the OPEC estimated that its member countries accounted for more than 80 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves.
Some of OPEC’s production cuts have had significant knock-on effects for the global economy. The best known was in 1973, when its Arab members imposed an embargo on the US and other countries that supported Israel during the Yom Kippur War.
Sometimes known as the “first oil shock”, it caused oil prices to quadruple within three months, led to fuel shortages in the US and is regarded as one of the causes of a prolonged economic crisis in the US and elsewhere in the 1970s, the WEF report pointed out.
Others include the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, the Gulf War of 1990-91, the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2007-08 global financial crisis.
Back in October 2022, when OPEC+ decided to cut production by 2 million barrels a day, the biggest reduction since April 2020, amid the Russia-Ukraine war, the move was criticised by US which said that the cut would boost Russia’s oil revenues and suggested it was made for political reasons, but Saudi Arabia denied this.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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