Abu Dhabi hosts oil summit as OPEC+ halts production hikes planned for first quarter of 2026

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Abu Dhabi opened a major oil summit Monday with officials offering bullish optimism that power demands for artificial intelligence and global aviation will boost energy prices, just hours after OPEC+ paused production increases planned for next year.

The comments at the annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference in the Emirati capital highlighted the contradictions in the market and in the United Arab Emirates, a major oil producer that hosted the United Nations COP28 climate talks in 2023.

Sultan al-Jaber, the head of the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. who led COP28, described the energy market as needing “reinforcement, not replacement.” U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum applauded al-Jaber's remarks and criticized what he described as “a set of policies that have been driven by an ideology around climate extremism.”

“The demand for power is going to go up and up and up," Burgum said. "Today’s the day to announce that there is no energy transition. There is only energy addition.”

On Sunday, OPEC+ met and decided to increase its production by an additional 137,000 barrels of oil beginning in December. However, it said other adjustments planned in January, February and March of next year would be paused “due to seasonality.”

OPEC+ includes the core members of the cartel, as well as nations outside of the group led by Russia.

Benchmark Brent crude sold Monday around $65 a barrel, down from a post-COVID high of some $115 a barrel after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It had fallen to $60 a barrel in recent days over concerns that the market had too much production.

“Yes, OPEC+ is blinking, but it’s a calculated move,” said Jorge León, the head of geopolitical analysis at Rystad Energy. “Sanctions on Russian producers have injected a new layer of uncertainty into supply forecasts, and the group knows that overproducing now could backfire later. By pausing, OPEC+ is protecting prices, projecting unity and buying time to see how sanctions play out on Russian barrels.”

Suhail al-Mazerouei, the Emirates' energy and infrastructure minister, however, dismissed any idea long-term of too much oil being in the market.

“I’m not going to talk about a an oversupply scenario," he said. "I can’t see that. I can’t justify that. And I think all of what we are seeing is more demand.”

Burgum, a former Republican governor of North Dakota and the chair of U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council, was on hand for the Abu Dhabi oil summit on Monday. He praised the partnership oil-producing Gulf Arab states have with America, saying: "We share a belief about energy policy.”

“People have described the climate as an existential threat. Again, to help people understand U.S. energy policy, we are focused on two substantial threats. One is Iran could not have a nuclear weapon," Burgum said. “But the second thing is that the free world cannot lose the AI arms race. ... You need chips, you need software models and you need more electricity.”

The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S., a key economic and political indicator in the country, stood at $3.03 on Monday. Trump also has criticized both OPEC+ and Saudi Arabia at times over the price per barrel, particularly in his first term.

Meanwhile, both the United States and the United Kingdom implemented new oil sanctions targeting Russia over its war on Ukraine. Those sanctions targets included Rosneft and the Russian oil company Lukoil, whose red-and-white logo hung over the annual oil conference. The UAE has maintained close ties to Russia despite the war, but has served as a key interlocutor between Kyiv and Moscow to negotiate prisoner exchanges.

“The Russian and Ukraine war is being funded by energy sales,” Burgum said on a stage that had flashed the Lukoil logo before his remarks.

The oil conference comes after the UAE hosted COP28. Those talks ended with a call by nearly 200 countries to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels — the first time the conference made that crucial pledge. Scientists have called for drastically slashing the world’s emissions by nearly half in the coming years to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial times.

But the UAE as a whole still plans to increase its production capacity of oil to 5 million barrels a day in the coming years as it pursues more clean energy at home.

Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi repeated a warning to the European Union that his nation could halt their liquefied natural gas shipments — something crucial due to Russian LNG being banned — over its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. That seeks to have companies pursue net-zero emission goals.

“I think, you know, a small part of this conference, unfortunately, changes with politics depending on when it was President Biden and President Trump and so on," al-Kaabi said. "I think that they're not looking at facts and realities and I think we shouldn't be following politics when we look at the lives of people for the future and how much energy we need in the future.”

UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director of state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) Sultan al-Jaber speaks during the inaugural session of annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director of state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) Sultan al-Jaber speaks during the inaugural session of annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director of state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) Sultan al-Jaber speaks during the inaugural session of annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Delegates are silhouetted against a screen as they attend the inaugural session of the annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

CORRECTS NAME SPELLING - U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum speaks during the inaugural session of annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC), in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)

Indiana is the No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll for the first time after going through the regular season and Big Ten championship game 13-0, ending Ohio State’s 14-week run atop the rankings.

The Hoosiers’ 13-10 win over the Buckeyes in Indianapolis on Saturday night made them the unanimous pick for No. 1 as they looked ahead to top seeding for their second straight appearance in the 12-team College Football Playoff.

Georgia, which beat Alabama by three touchdowns in the Southeastern Conference title game, moved up one spot to No. 2 for its highest ranking of the season. Ohio State, the defending national champion, slipped two spots to No. 3.

Texas Tech, a 27-point winner over BYU in the Big 12 championship game, also has its highest ranking of the season after rising one rung to No. 4.

Oregon was No. 5 and followed by Mississippi, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Notre Dame and Miami.

Miami moved up two spots and returned to the top 10 for the first time since mid-October. Alabama and BYU each dropped one spot, to Nos. 11 and 12.

Among Group of Five teams, American Conference champion Tulane jumped four spots to No. 17 for its highest ranking in two years. Sun Belt Conference champion James Madison remained No. 19.

The final AP Top 25 will be released Jan. 20, the day after the national championship game.

— Indiana, which had the most losses in major college football history prior to Curt Cignetti’s arrival two years ago, had never been ranked higher than No. 2 before Sunday. That was the position the Hoosiers held for seven straight weeks before they rose to the top. They were 100 ballot points ahead of Georgia. The Bulldogs were just 12 points ahead of Ohio State.

— With the limited schedule of games, all teams that were in the Top 25 remained in the poll.

— Virginia took the biggest fall after losing in overtime to Duke in the ACC championship game, going from No. 16 to No. 20.

SEC (8 ranked teams): Nos. 2 Georgia, 6 Mississippi, 7 Texas A&M, 8 Oklahoma, 11 Alabama, 13 Vanderbilt, 14 Texas, 25 Missouri.

Big Ten (5): Nos. 1 Indiana, 3 Ohio State, 5 Oregon, 16 Southern California, 18 Michigan.

Big 12 (4): Nos. 4 Texas Tech, 12 BYU, 15 Utah, 20 Arizona.

ACC (3): Nos. 10 Miami, 21 Virginia, 24 Georgia Tech.

American (3): Nos. 17 Tulane, 22 Navy, 23 North Texas.

Independent (1): No. 9 Notre Dame.

Sun Belt (1): No. 19 James Madison.

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

Georgia wide receiver Zachariah Branch (1) celebrates his touchdown against Alabama during the second half of a Southeastern Conference championship NCAA college football game, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)