With US gasoline prices still above $4.50 per gallon, president Joe Biden is under immense pressure to balance the global oil market. Asking consumers to use less oil is a political dead end. His best bet is to get producers to pump more out more barrels. He hopes to do that during a visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates this week.
The problem is that global oil production is already running practically full-steam. Production in the US’s biggest shale oil basin hit a record in June. For some OPEC members, including Nigeria and Libya, drilling is crippled by mismanagement and conflict. Saudi and the UAE have a bit more drilling capacity, but it’s unclear if they will be willing or able to put it to use. Consider this data from June:
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/En90T/1/
Read the rest of this story on qz.com. Become a member to get unlimited access to Quartz’s journalism.
