OPEC Plus production cut decision attracts opposite reactions

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a decision by the OPEC Plus to cut oil production was unhelpful and unwise for the global economy, especially emerging markets, the Financial Times quoted on Sunday.

"We're very worried about developing countries and the problems they face," Yellen told the newspaper in an interview.

As against this, Kremlin praised OPEC Plus for agreeing production cuts that had successfully countered the ‘mayhem’ sown by the United States in global energy markets.

The OPEC Plus decision to cut oil production despite stiff US opposition has further strained already tense relations between President Joe Biden and Saudi royal family, Reuters reported on Saturday.

The White House pushed hard to prevent the output cut. Biden hopes to keep US gasoline prices from spiking again ahead of midterm elections in which his Democratic party is struggling to maintain control of the US Congress.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was very good that such balanced, thoughtful and planned work of the countries, which take a responsible position within OPEC, is opposed to the actions of the United States.

"This at least balances the mayhem that the Americans are causing," Peskov said, according to Russian news agencies.

Peskov said that the United States had begun to lose its composure over the OPEC decision and was even trying to push additional volumes of its reserves into the market.

"They are trying to manipulate with their oil reserves by throwing additional volumes into the market. Such a game will not lead to anything good," Peskov said.

The worry for those tracking Europe's energy transition commitments is that these accumulated costs of LNG imports, alongside other expenses already incurred, drain both the funds available for de-carbonization projects and the level of ambition of the governments responsible for them.

There's an irony in that this potential diminished firepower comes when the appetite in society and government for weaning Europe off fossil fuels has likely never been greater.

But funding has always been a critical component of every energy transition plan, and the reality is that if government and commercial budgets have already been drained by imports of fossil fuels to keep the economy going, there may be little left in the kitty to finance the transition to a greener energy system.