(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) Two months after President Joe Biden visited Saudi Arabia and begged Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to produce more oil, The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries announced a 100,000 barrel per day reduction in global oil output, Zero Hedge reported.
Biden met with bin Salman in July to negotiate for higher production levels to offset his manufactured decline in American oil output.
At the August meeting, Saudi Arabia and the 23 other OPEC+ member states acquiesced to Biden’s request, agreeing to boost production levels by 100,000 barrels per day—a modest increase for an assocation that produces more than 30 million barrels per day.
OPEC lowered its production target a few days after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he had shut off the Nord Stream pipeline’s gas flow into Europe.
The shutdown will continue until the West removes sanctions on Russia, AlJazeera reported. That decision came after the G7 nations revealed a plan to cap Russian oil prices.
Since the G7 oil price cap was announced on Friday, Russia has retaliated cutting gas supply to Germany to zero, and joining forces with Saudi Arabia and others at OPEC+ to reduce global oil production.
I’m going to go to the pub to drink some beer now.
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) September 5, 2022
Energy consultant Ellen Wald said that both OPEC’s initial production boost and its subsequent reversal amount to “almost nothing” in economic terms though they have immense symbolic importance, CNBC reported.
“It’s more of a political snub to President Biden as well as the European Union, signaling that OPEC is going to go its own way and they want to protect those higher prices,” said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.
Conservative commentators noted the hypocrisy in Biden becoming bin Salman’s buddy to save Americans from rising energy prices and to rescue his collapsing approval rating.
Biden has accused bin Salman of ordering the murder of American-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi and condemned Saudi Arabia for human rights violations, yet he wants to send the nation more money for oil that the United States could produce domestically, BBC reported.
— The AJ Steel Show (@ajsteelshow) July 16, 2022
