According to H.E. Haitham al-Ghais, the new Secretary-General of OPEC, Russia is “a big, main and highly influential player in the world energy map.” Al-Ghais also agreed with Saudi Arabia and the UAE that the spike in oil prices was the result of processes that started much earlier than the conflict in Ukraine.

According to Reuters, in an interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper Alrai, Al-Ghais claimed that Russia was essential to the success of the OPEC+ deal and that OPEC was not in competition with it in the oil market.

According to Al-Ghais, the oil market is currently “very volatile and turbulent.” He also noted that “OPEC doesn’t control oil prices, but it practices what is called tuning the markets in terms of supply and demand.”

He was quoted as saying: “All the data confirm that prices began to rise gradually and cumulatively, and before the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian developments, due to the prevailing perception in the markets that there is a shortage of spare production capacity, which has become confined to a few and limited countries.”

The Kuwaiti oil official will hold the position of OPEC secretary-general for three years beginning today. He replaces Mohamed Barkindo of Nigeria, who passed away last month after he was unanimously appointed by representatives of OPEC member states on January 1, 2022.

This week, the Kuwaiti representative will attend his first OPEC+ gathering as the secretary-general of OPEC. Early indications indicate that the group would likely talk about maintaining oil output in September at the same level as in August, but other sources told Reuters that it might potentially debate a slight increase.