OPEC denied a report in the American Wall Street Journal that the Saudi prince and energy minister allegedly threatened members of the OPEC+ deal with cutting oil to $50 if the participants did not meet their production quotas and continued to exceed them.
OPEC denies Wall Street Journal report: “Sources say Saudi Oil Minister says prices could fall to $50 a barrel if others cheat.”
“The OPEC Secretariat categorically denies the statements made in this story as totally inaccurate and misleading.” – says the official statement.
OPEC noted that the article referred to a conference call during which the Saudi Energy Minister allegedly warned OPEC+ members of a possible price drop to $50 per barrel if they did not implement agreed production cuts.
“An alleged quote was also attributed to the minister: “Some people should shut up and fulfill their obligations to OPEC+.” These claims are completely unfounded… There was no such conference call last week, and there have been no calls or video conferences since the last OPEC+ meeting on September 5. “The alleged statements attributed to anonymous sources are not credible and are completely fabricated.” – said the poster.
Meetings, whether in person or by teleconference, are always conducted in a civil and respectful manner, OPEC said: “It is therefore deeply troubling that the WSJ publishes such a report, which not only lacks integrity journalistic and professionalism, but also demonstrates a blatant disregard for the respect due to OPEC+ ministers.”
In September, oil prices fell to around $71 per barrel, the lowest level since November 2021. On the one hand, the market does not expect a large increase in demand from the largest US consumers. and China. On the other hand, even the decision of OPEC+ to postpone the start of the increase in production until December did not play a special role, since the members of the agreement themselves violate the quotas and supply more oil to the market.
The International Energy Agency estimated that surplus volumes, for example, in May amounted to 630 thousand barrels per day, 16% of all announced reductions. The United Arab Emirates was named the biggest offender. Its production was 3.25 million barrels per day, 340 thousand barrels more. Iraq followed: 280,000 more barrels. Furthermore, quotas were not fully met in Saudi Arabia and Russia. According to the IEA, 50 thousand barrels per day and 170 thousand barrels per day, respectively. All participants promised to compensate for overproduction, but not all do so.
Leading analyst at FNEB and expert at the Russian Government Financial University Igor Yushkov noted EADaily that there are discipline problems in OPEC+, and Saudi Arabia constantly struggles with them.
At the same time, as experts said earlier, the West is trying to reduce the price of oil, especially before the presidential elections in the United States. And since raw materials are a commodity, any news can affect their prices.
