- US officials asked Saudi and other Gulf producers to stall production cuts
- The cuts, announced early this month, led to spate of headlines
- Although they take effect in November, delay would have put off further
- NSC spokeswoman called it ‘categorically false to connect this to U.S. elections’
- Saudi officials viewed the request ‘as a political gambit’
- White House spokesman John Kirby said Biden is reconsidering his Saudi stance
- Added that the president is willing to work with Congress on future of relations
- Top Democrats have called for a freeze on arm sales after the OPEC decision
- Senator Dick Durbin said Saudi Arabia wants Russia to win the war in Ukraine
- JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a veiled swipe at Biden as he said the U.S. should pump more oil and gas and should have been doing so for a long time
- Oil producer group OPEC and its allied partners in early October announced their largest supply cut since 2020, to the tune of 2 million barrels per day from November.
- With the global economy on a knife-edge and energy prices high, Washington sees the move as a snub from ally Saudi Arabia and a blatant display of siding with Moscow.
President Joe Biden is angry at Saudi Arabia for its decision to slash oil production along with its OPEC allies against U.S. wishes, and he’s made no secret of it.
With the global economy on a knife-edge and energy prices high, Washington sees the kingdom’s move – which it made in coordination with Russia and other oil-producing states – as a snub and a blatant display of siding with Moscow.
www.cnbc.com/2022/10/12/biden-threatens-consequences-for-saudi-arabia-after-opec-cut.html