It was Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait who led the surprise cuts, alongside OPEC’s second-largest producer Iraq and another half a dozen OPEC+ producers, including Russia.

While Russia’s extension of its own 500,000-bpd cut until the end of the year was no surprise – analysts had largely baked in a drop in Russian production in view of the embargoes and price caps on its oil – the move from OPEC’s heavyweights came as a surprise. And sent a clear message to the market—we are in charge.