US: OPEC Has Capacity to Increase Crude Production

The White House believes the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has room to raise oil production, should an upcoming visit by President Joe Biden to the Middle East yield any agreements. 
“We do believe there is a capacity for further steps that could be taken,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a press conference, Bloomberg reported. 
It is ultimately up to OPEC countries to determine what those additional steps entail, he added. 
Biden has intensified efforts to lobby the cartel for more output in an effort to tame high energy prices. He is making his first visit to the Middle East this week, which will include a stop in Saudi Arabia. 
The kingdom and the UAE are the only OPEC members with significant volumes of unused output. They currently have a buffer of about 3 million barrels a day, official data from the countries indicate.
That is about 3% of global oil output, and roughly equivalent to the amount of Russian oil that could be kept off the market by sanctions at the yearend, according to the International Energy Agency. But the margin of emergency supplies could be narrower than what official figures indicate.