On April 28, 2026, the United Arab Emirates announced it would withdraw from both OPEC and the broader OPEC+ alliance, effective May 1, 2026. Unquestionably, this is the most significant defection in the cartel’s 66‑year history, given that the UAE accounts for roughly 11.5% of OPEC’s output. Naturally, such a seismic move has left investors and analysts scrambling to interpret...