VIENNA—The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its Russia-led allies on Wednesday agreed to slash two million barrels a day, delegates said, in a move likely to push up already-high global energy prices and help oil-exporting Russia pay for its war in Ukraine.
The decision could undermine a plan by the Group of Seven wealthy nations to cap the price of Russian oil on the global market, a key part of the West’s economic battle with Moscow. It came less than three months after President Biden visited Saudi Arabia, the OPEC’s de facto leader, in a bid to repair relations between the world’s biggest oil consumer and its biggest crude-oil exporter during a period of rising inflation driven in part by high energy prices.
