The world’s top oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, wasn’t just thinking about the global oil market when it rolled over its extra production cut into April and had the members of the OPEC+ alliance keep their total output basically flat next month, with small increases for Russia and Kazakhstan. The Saudis, as well as other crude oil producers in the Middle East, were probably thinking of their budgets and current accounts as well, which need high oil prices to recover from the massive deficits and low oil revenues from last year, when the sudden oil demand and oil price collapse impacted their economies more than non-oil exporters during the pandemic. While aiming to further tighten the oil market, the OPEC+ group and its leading OPEC members in the Arab Gulf are also plugging some of the shortfalls from 2020, with Brent oil prices nearing the $70 a barrel mark. Higher […]