OPEC+ cutting oil output

GS Paper - 2 (International Relations)

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia, a group known as OPEC+ which pumps around 40% of the world’s crude, agreed on a new oil output deal on 4 May 2023. Saudi Arabia, the group’s biggest producer, will make a deep cut to its output in July on top of a broader OPEC+ deal to limit supply into 2024 as the group faces flagging oil prices.

Main reasons why OPEC+ cut output

1. Concerns about weak global demand - Data from China has aroused fears that the economic recovery after coronavirus lockdowns by the world's second-largest oil consumer is losing steam. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has also pointed to “interference with market dynamics”.
2. Punishing speculators - The planned cuts will also punish oil short sellers betting on oil price declines.
3. US output rising - U.S. crude oil production is set to rise by 5.1% to 12.53 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2023 and by 1.3% to 12.69 million bpd in 2024. This compares with around 10 million bpd as recently as 2018.
4. Tensions with Washington - Additional cuts from OPEC+ could drive tensions with leading consuming nations that are trying to fight inflation.

What is OPEC+?

1. Established in 1960 by founding members Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, OPEC has since expanded and now has 13 member states.
2. With the addition of another 11 allied major oil-producing countries that include Russia, the grouping is known as OPEC+.
3. The objective of the organisation is to “coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the stabilisation of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.

AI to find an antibiotic against a superbug

GS Paper - 3 (Science and Technology)

In a major breakthrough for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of medicine, scientists from the United States and Canada have found a new antibiotic – powerful enough to kill a superbug – using AI. Superbugs are bacteria that are resistant to several types of antibiotics. Each year these drug-resistant bacteria infect more than 2 million people in the US and kill at least 23,000, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

What is Acinetobacter baumannii?

1. The study (‘Deep learning-guided discovery of an antibiotic targeting Acinetobacter baumannii’) published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology on 25 May 2023 dealt with the bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii and saw participation from Canada’s McMaster University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
2. In 2017, the bacterium was identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as one of the world’s most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
3. Notoriously difficult to eradicate, A. baumannii can cause pneumonia, meningitis and infect wounds, all of which can lead to death, according to the University of McMaster.
4. A. baumanni is usually found in hospital settings, where it can survive on surfaces for long periods.
5. The WHO’s list of superbugs highlighted bacteria that are having built-in abilities to find new ways to resist treatment and can pass along genetic material that allows other bacteria to become drug-resistant as well.

How do bacteria become resistant to drugs?

1. Antibiotics are medicines used to prevent and treat bacterial infections. Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria change in response to the use of these medicines, says the WHO. This ultimately threatens the ability of medicines to treat common infectious diseases.
2. Where antibiotics can be bought for human or animal use without a prescription, the emergence and spread of resistance is made worse, it says, cautioning against overconsumption of medicines without medical professionals’ recommendation for treating common illnesses.
3. The WHO lists infections such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, and foodborne diseases as becoming harder to treat with existing medication due to increasing anti-bacterial resistance.

How did researchers use AI in this case?

1. Narrowing down the right antibacterial chemicals against bacteria can be a long, difficult process. This is where algorithms come in because the concept of AI is based on the process of machines being given large amounts of data and training themselves on identifying patterns and solutions based on them.
2. According to MIT, the researchers first exposed A. baumannii grown in a lab dish to about 7,500 different chemical compounds, to see which ones could help pause the growth of the bacterium.
3. Then they fed the structure of each molecule into the machine-learning model. They also told the model whether each structure could prevent bacterial growth or not.
4. This allowed the algorithm to learn chemical features associated with growth inhibition.

Ground Level Ozone

GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

According to a new analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), parts of the Delhi-NCR region witnessed ground-level ozone readings exceeding the national standards on 87 out of 92 days in the summer period between March and May.

What is ground-level ozone?

1. Also known as tropospheric ozone, ground-level ozone is “a colourless and highly irritating gas that forms just above the Earth’s surface (up to 2 miles above the ground).,” as per Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
2. Notably, it’s not directly emitted into the air but rather produced when two primary pollutants react in sunlight and stagnant air.
3. These two primary pollutants are nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Therefore, ground-level ozone is called a “secondary” pollutant.
4. NOx and VOCs come from natural sources as well as human activities.
5. About 95 per cent of NOx from human activity comes from the burning of coal, gasoline and oil in motor vehicles, homes, industries and power plants.
6. VOCs from human activity come mainly from gasoline combustion and marketing, upstream oil and gas production, residential wood combustion, and from the evaporation of liquid fuels and solvents.
7. Ground-level ozone is likely to breach safety standards on hot summer days in urban areas, but can also reach unhealthy levels during colder months.
8. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mentioned on its website that the pollutant can also travel long distances due to wind and affect rural areas also.

Harmful effects of ground-level ozone

1. Those with respiratory conditions, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and particularly children with premature lungs and older adults are at serious risk.
2. This can inflame and damage airways, make lungs susceptible to infection, aggravate asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis and increase the frequency of asthma attacks leading to increased hospitalisation.
3. The pollutant can also affect sensitive vegetation and ecosystems, including forests, parks and wildlife refuges. Significantly, it can harm sensitive vegetation during the growing season too.