The disaggregation of OPEC’s Gulf production coalition: UAE’s exit and the unravelling of the Arab oil order

On 1st May, 2026, the United Arab Emirates formally departs from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), ending almost six decades of membership that began with the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967. Officials in Abu Dhabi frame the decision as a sovereign recalibration of national