Saudi Arabia’s energy minister has signalled a willingness to pump more oil if the global energy crisis worsens, while describing this month’s decision by the Opec+ cartel to cut crude supply during a period of high prices as a “mature” decision.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the move to produce less oil from next month, which has caused a rift with the US, was necessary to provide a bigger spare capacity buffer if sanctions on Russian exports, or any other unforeseen events, led to a major drop in global supply.
“You need to make sure you build a situation where if things [get] worse you have the ability to [respond],” Prince Abdulaziz, who also chairs the oil producers’ group, told the Future Investment Initiative investor conference in Riyadh. “Running out of capacity has a much dearer cost than what people can imagine.”