- Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reaffirmed his country’s commitment to the OPEC+ agreement with Russia.
- The Kingdom has not made a move to bring extra crude onto the market despite the current spike in crude prices.
- Since 2017, Russia and Saudi Arabia have signed a string of high-profile energy deals that have pulled the Kingdom away from the U.S. sphere of influence.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) reiterated last week his country’s “commitment to the ‘OPEC+’ agreement” – working alongside the agreement’s other key partner, Russia – despite the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. MbS sought to couch this extraordinary re-assertion of his country’s alliance with Russia in terms of the “the kingdom’s keenness on the stability and balance of oil markets”. However, this idea was quickly undermined by the announcement of that the ongoing modest rise of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in collective output seen over the past few months will continue, despite the economic damage being done to many developed economies by current high oil and gas prices. In reality, what MbS’s comment underlined was the broad-based strategic political and economic shift seen by Saudi Arabia since the end of the 2014-2016 Oil Price War, away from the U.S.’s sphere of influence and towards that of China and Russia. The catalyst for this seismic shift in geopolitical alliances was the failure of the 2014-2016 Oil Price War, which was launched with the specific intention by Saudi Arabia to destroy – or at least severely disable for as many years as possible – the U.S.’s then-nascent shale oil sector, It was obvious to the Saudis at that point – and indeed to the U.S. – that the unchecked build-out of lower fixed cost oil in increasingly large volumes would mean the gradual but extreme diminution of Saudi Arabia’s power in the world and as a key player in the Middle East, given that its only true basis of power is its oil supplies. NN: talk about throwing away a win. The US became a net oil exporter….. Totally self sufficient in EVERY know energy technology. So sad in a year the liberal lefties financed by American enemies have destroyed the edge. The attack on the Ukraine would have never happened if the west simply exploited their existing energy resources. By design the enemies of freedom using the Greeneeinniees to make the great democracies hopelessly and completely dependent on hostile Russian and Middle Easter sources for oil. These people are fascists and have nothing but destain and hatrered for democracy