Saudi Arabia could abandon its support for oil prices and increase production

Saudi Arabia could give up its support for oil prices and abandon its (unofficial) target of an oil price of $100 a barrel. Such a U-turn could lead to a significant fall in oil prices, with Brent crude trading at around $74 a barrel for the past fortnight. At the initiative of Saudi Arabia, the OPEC+ group has been committed to a strategy of lowering production since November 2022, without really managing to halt the fall in oil prices, due to increased production by non-OPEC producer countries (notably the United States, Canada, Brazil and Guyana) and weak demand from China. Ten years ago, Saudi Arabia's decision to stop supporting oil prices led to a sharp fall in prices, designed to slow down the production of unconventional oil, most of it American. Saudi Arabia is currently only producing at 80% of its capacity.