UAE Formally Withdraws From OPEC and OPEC+ Starting May 1, Marking a Historic Shift in Global Energy

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has officially announced its departure from both OPEC and OPEC+, with the change taking effect May 1. The country has held OPEC membership since 1967 — a detail that makes its exit even more notable, as this membership predates the formal founding of the UAE as a sovereign state by four years. The move signals a defining turning point for the UAE’s role in the global energy ecosystem.

Released via the UAE’s state news agency WAM, the official government statement frames the exit as the outcome of a full, top-to-bottom review of the country’s production policy and output capacity. The step, it says, reflects “the UAE’s long-term strategic and economic vision and evolving energy profile.”

The decision, the statement adds, is rooted entirely in core national interests and a commitment to meeting what the UAE calls the “pressing needs” of global markets. This refers to widespread unmet global energy demand that the UAE argues persists amid ongoing large-scale supply disruptions across the sector.

The statement also explicitly acknowledges the tense geopolitical backdrop shaping current conditions, including the ongoing conflict with Iran that has severely restricted tanker transit through the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway between Iran and Oman normally carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s total crude oil and liquefied natural gas supplies.

Per estimates from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain idled 7.5 million barrels of crude production per day in March, and that figure rose to 9.1 million barrels per day in April. Even so, the UAE emphasized its exit is a proactive, policy-led choice rather than a reaction to current events, noting that “underlying trends point to sustained growth in global energy demand over the medium to long term.”

A Long-Standing Rift Over Production Quotas

Tuesday’s announcement was not out of the blue. Tensions over output limits stretch back years: in 2021, the UAE refused to endorse a deal extending production cuts unless its individual quota was increased. The country argued at the time that it had invested billions of dollars to expand production capacity, and was being unfairly constrained by baseline limits set in 2018. A last-minute compromise was eventually reached, but the standoff exposed a fundamental conflict: the UAE wants to produce far more oil, and OPEC+’s quota system was holding it back. That ambition has only grown in the years since.

State-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has a public target of reaching 5 million barrels of production per day by 2027, up from its current output of roughly 3.4 million barrels daily. Under the existing OPEC+ deal, the UAE is capped at around 3.2 million barrels per day, even as it holds total production capacity above 4 million barrels. This growing gap between usable capacity and allowed output made continued OPEC membership increasingly difficult to justify for UAE leaders.

The UAE stressed that its exit does not mean it is stepping back from global energy responsibility. It pledged to add any new production to global markets “in a gradual and measured manner, aligned with demand and market conditions,” and reaffirmed its existing investment plans across oil, gas, renewables, and low-carbon technologies. Leaving OPEC, the statement explained, will give the UAE greater flexibility to respond to changing market dynamics. OPEC’s core model relies on binding production limits, meaning the world’s top oil producers often cannot supply as much oil as they are able to sell. By restricting total supply, the group keeps global prices elevated. This system disproportionately benefits producers that rely heavily on oil revenue — a description that fits Saudi Arabia far more than the UAE, where the non-oil economy now makes up roughly 75% of total GDP.

Immediate Market Reaction and Broader Implications for OPEC

The immediate market response to the announcement was sharp. Brent crude, the global European benchmark, crossed $100 per barrel for the first time since April 8, rising to $111 per barrel as of this writing.

Longer term, the consequences for OPEC are far more consequential. The group has been under strain for months, with multiple members — including Iraq, Kazakhstan, and the UAE itself — exceeding their quotas and facing requirements to compensate for overproduction with future cuts. The UAE’s departure removes OPEC’s third-largest producer at a time when global supply dynamics are already extremely fragile.

The exit follows Qatar’s 2019 departure from the bloc, and comes one day ahead of OPEC’s scheduled meeting in Vienna, Austria.

“The time has come to focus our efforts on what our national interest dictates and our commitment to our investors, customers, partners and global energy markets,” the statement read. The UAE added that it values more than five decades of cooperation within OPEC and wished the organization success going forward.

This story originally appeared on WIRED Middle East.