President Joe Biden went to Saudi Arabia over the summer and came back with nothing but egg on his face. And it gets worse. Saudi Arabia-led OPEC was talking about cutting oil production which would jack prices up across the globe. Biden and his team were apoplectic and pressed our key Mideast allies not to do it.
Today Biden got snubbed and OPEC agreed to cut its collective output limit by 2 million barrels per day marking the biggest reduction by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies since 2020. Ouch. Of course, we will be the ones crying out in pain when the cuts hit.
On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” CNN Senior National Security Correspondent Alex Marquardt said, “We have learned, myself and our colleagues Natasha Bertrand and Phil Mattingly, is that there is this furious, last-ditch, wide-scale effort to lobby the OPEC-plus oil-producing countries to not cut oil production, that senior members of the Biden administration are reaching out to members of the cartel, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.
“This effort is being led by the top Biden administration official for energy, Amos Hochstein. They’ve also enlisted the top White House official for the Middle East, Brett McGurk.
“But interestingly, they’ve also — just to show you how widespread this is — reached out to the Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, asking her to reach out to counterparts around the world. And we actually got talking points that the White House sent to Treasury that have very blunt language suggesting that Yellen say some of this to her counterparts.
“They say that this would be a ‘total disaster’ it would be seen as a ‘hostile act’ against the United States. This is very blunt language. The White House says that these were draft talking points and not used. But it does give insight into how nervous they are, Jake,” he said.
“I think it is a mistake on their part. And I think it’s time for a wholesale re-revaluation of the U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia,” Dem Senator Chris Murphy told CNBC.
“I just don’t know what the point of the current alliance is, if we have to work so hard to get the Saudis to do the right thing,” Murphy added.
United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said the decision was “technical.”
“It’s very important that it remains as a technical decision and it’s not political,” he said.
“That’s why it’s important to look at technical side of the equation and look at any concerns regarding the economy and the status of the economy.”
OPEC…Oh Boy! Can't wait for this conversation https://t.co/QHdcpjI4SF
— Charles V Payne (@cvpayne) October 5, 2022
.@RoKhanna on potential OPEC cut: "President Biden should make it clear that we will stop supplying the Saudis with weapons and air parts if they fleece the American people and strengthen Putin by making drastic production cuts … They needs us far more than we need them."
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) October 5, 2022
OPEC and its Russia-led allies on agreed to slash 2 million barrels a day
The decision could undermine a plan by the G7 to cap the price of Russian oil on the global markethttps://t.co/19CCTkVoth
— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) October 5, 2022
