Dubai (AFP)

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two major allies within OPEC, have increased pressure in the oil price war they are delivering to Russia, announcing that they could flood world markets with black gold, whose prices plunged Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia, leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), lobbies for Russia - the world's second largest producer but not a member of OPEC - to accept a reduction in world crude oil production to compensate for a drop in demand caused by the new coronavirus epidemic.

Since Moscow's refusal last week, Ryad has cut prices sharply in 20 years, trying to capture Moscow's market share and triggering an earthquake in the financial markets, which is affecting Russia especially. .

In the aftermath of a rebound in the stock markets, the oil giant Saudi Aramco announced Wednesday that it plans to increase its oil production capacity by one million barrels per day (bpd), to bring it to 13 million .

"Saudi Aramco announces that it has received a directive from the Ministry of Energy to increase its maximum sustainable capacity from 12 to 13 million bpd," the public company said in a statement posted on the Saudi Stock Exchange website.

On Tuesday, the world's largest exporter of crude had already decided to increase its production by at least 2.5 million bpd to reach a record level of 12.3 million bpd from April.

Prices suffered their worst fall on Monday in nearly 30 years, plunging by around 25% before rebounding the next day. On Wednesday, after the announcement by Saudi Aramco, oil prices started to fall again.

- "An agreement is essential" -

Wednesday, around 08:22 GMT, a barrel of "light sweet crude" (WTI), American benchmark for crude oil, for delivery in April, yielded 0.42 dollar, or 1.22%, to 33.94 dollars, in electronic exchanges .

The barrel of Brent, European benchmark, for May, for its part lost 0.32 dollar, or 0.86%, to 36.90 dollars.

For their part, the Emirates, OPEC's fourth producer and close allies of Ryad in the Gulf, have also said they are ready to increase their oil production by more than a million barrels per day (bpd).

"In accordance with our strategy of growing production capacity (...), we are able to supply the market with four million barrels per day (bpd) in April," said Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc ) in a press release.

"In addition, we are going to accelerate our capacity target to five million bpd," added the UAE public company, which until now has produced around three million bpd.

"The operators of the Emirates have a significant production capacity which will be quickly put into service given the current circumstances," warned the UAE Minister of Energy, Souheil al-Mazrouei, on Twitter.

But his country is "convinced that a new agreement (between OPEC and Russia) is essential to support a balanced and less volatile market," he added.

- Russia "strengthened", according to Putin -

The announcements by the Saudis and the Emiratis do not seem to have made Moscow bend. Russian President Vladimir Putin was confident during a meeting with investors, saying he was "certain" that the Russian economy would come out "strengthened".

"I am sure that Russia will go through this turbulent period with calm and dignity", assured the head of state, already faced internally with enormous economic challenges and a challenge against his constitutional revision allowing him to remain in the power after the end of his current mandate.

Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday that he would not "close the door" on negotiations with the OPEC countries. The recent Moscow disagreement "does not mean that in the future we will no longer be able to cooperate," he added.

The Saudi kingdom claims to have a production capacity of 12 million bpd, but it remains unclear whether this rate will be viable in the long term.

Arabia also has tens of millions of barrels of crude stored in strategic reserves that are supposed to be used when needed and could use it to supply additional barrels.

© 2020 AFP