Saudi Arabia denies any anti-US motive to OPEC+ output cut

Saudi Arabia rejected as baseless Thursday accusations that last week’s output cut by oil cartel OPEC and its allies, including Russia, was politically motivated against the United States.

The decision to cut production by two million barrels a day from November infuriated the White House, with President Joe Biden promising “consequences” for OPEC’s top producer Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi Arabia has viewed the statements… which have described the decision as the kingdom taking sides in international conflicts and that it was politically motivated against the United States,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia would “like to express its total rejection of these statements that are not based on facts and which are based on portraying the OPEC+ decision out of its economic context,” it added.

The kingdom insisted that decisions by OPEC and its allies, known as OPEC+, were taken “purely on economic considerations” and that its economic advice had been to resist calls to delay the production cut.

“The government of the kingdom clarified through its continuous consultation with the US administration that all economic analyses indicate that postponing the OPEC+ decision for a month… would have had negative economic consequences,” the ministry said.

“Resolving economic challenges requires the establishment of a non-politicised constructive dialogue and to wisely and rationally consider what serves the interests of all countries.”

The kingdom denied that it was taking sides over Russia’s invasion of Western-backed Ukraine, insisting that it had maintained a “principled position” in support of international law.

Responding to the Saudi statement, the United States criticised the kingdom for insisting last week’s output cut was economically rather than politically motivated.

“The Saudi foreign ministry can try to spin or deflect, but the facts are simple. The world is rallying behind Ukraine in combating Russian aggression,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.