OPEC+’s two-year production pact is sent to end in August. The war premium on oil has kept prices elevated, adding inflationary pressure across the globe. OPEC has routinely struggled to meet its agreed-upon production targets, raising questions as to whether or not it can even increase output. The production pact OPEC+ struck in April 2020 is set to end a month earlier than initially planned, in August 2022. The oil-producing group, however, is already facing its next dilemma—it has been facing it since the alliance’s key member, Russia, invaded Ukraine in February, sending oil prices above $100 a barrel. The war premium and the sanctions and bans on Russian oil in the West are keeping prices so elevated that inflation in developed economies, including in the United States, has surged to a four-decade high, also driven up by soaring food prices and renewed supply-chain bottlenecks. Oil at between $110 […]