UAE energy chief doubles down on OPEC alliance with Russia

The United Arab Emirates' energy minister doubled down Monday on an oil alliance with Russia that's helped buoy crude prices to their highest in years as the crisis Ukraine rattles markets and sends energy and commodity prices soaring.

The minister said Russia, with its 10 million barrels of oil a day, is an important member of the global OPEC+ energy alliance.

“And leaving the politics aside, that volume is needed today,” Suhail al-Mazrouei said. “Unless someone is willing to come and bring 10 million barrels, we don’t see that someone can substitute Russia.”

Al-Mazrouei described the OPEC+ alliance as one that is here to stay and shot down any suggestion that the UAE would strike out on its own and increase production unilaterally.

“Staying together, staying focused, and not allowing politics to kick in to this organization ... we always believe that whatever we do as countries when it comes to production and to this work, it needs always to stay out of politics,” al-Mazrouei added.

Led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, the alliance has the capacity to increase oil output and bring down crude prices that have soared past $100 a barrel.

The United States, European nations, Japan and others have been calling on Gulf Arab oil producers to do more to help bring down prices. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid an in-person visit this month to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, where he raised the issue.