RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has told the US that postponing OPEC+ decision to cut production is negative for the world, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The Kingdom clarified through its continuous consultation with the US Administration that all economic analyses indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences,” the statement said.
The Kingdom also rejected statements criticizing it after last week’s OPEC+ decision to cut oil supply.
Members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies agreed to cut supply by 2 million barrels a day on Oct. 5.
President Joe Biden, who is attempting to stop Russia profiting from energy sales to limit President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, had called the decision “shortsighted” after the alliance announced the cuts in Vienna.
Biden promised this week “there will be consequences” for Saudi-US relations because of the OPEC+ move, without clarifying what his administration intends to do.
The statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry said criticism that the Kingdom was taking sides in international conflicts or had supported the cuts for political reasons against the US were not based on facts and took the OPEC+ decision out of its economic context.
The ministry statement said the agreement between OPEC+ nations was unanimous and sought to balance supply and demand to help curb market volatility, adding that Saudi Arabia rejected any attempt to divert it from the goal of protecting the global economy from oil market fluctuations.
Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told Bloomberg after the cuts were announced: “Our current priority is stability in the market in terms of demand and investment.” On prioritizing profit directly he said, “that mantra maybe could be acceptable if it is meant to be that we are deliberately doing this to jack up prices and that is not on our radar, our radar is to make sure we sustain markets.”
The Saudi foreign ministry statement, citing an unnamed official, said: “Resolving economic challenges requires the establishment of a non-politicized constructive dialogue, and to wisely and rationally consider what serves the interests of all countries. The Kingdom affirms that it views its relationship with the US as a strategic one that serves the common interests of both countries.”
US Democrats, with an eye on the impact of rising gas prices ahead of November elections, have assailed the Kingdom, with some even calling for the end of defense cooperation between the longstanding partners.
The average US gas price stood at $3.92 per gallon on Wednesday.
Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir told Fox News on Friday: “The idea that Saudi Arabia would do this to harm the US or to be in any way politically involved is absolutely not correct at all. With due respect the reason you have high prices in the United States is because you have a refining shortage that has been in existence for more than 20 years, you haven’t built refineries in decades.”
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Biden for the current energy crisis.
“This is a failure of American policy. Joe Biden is directly responsible for the place that the world finds itself on energy.”
He also accused the progressive left of spending 25 years of thinking they are “going to run the world on sunshine and windmills.”
Aside from not building new refineries, Pompeo said the current administration has the wrong strategy for making the US energy independent.
“We shut down a pipeline, we’ve made it hard to permit, we’ve got ESG rules that now deny the capacity to get American energy out of American ground for American consumers.”
“We have the capacity for self-help here in the US,” Pompeo told Fox News Sunday.
“To point the finger at someone else, at OPEC or at the Saudis, is an enormous mistake when America has the capacity to produce energy independence for its own country and, frankly, provide energy for the world as well.”