John Kirby, Strategic Communications Director of the White House National Security Council, said that the decision of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the OPEC+ group, which consists of some non-OPEC producing countries, to reduce oil production by 2 million barrels a day as of November, is equivalent to providing moral and military support to Russia in the Ukraine war. said that.
In his briefing via Zoom, Kirby briefed journalists on the US foreign policy and answered questions. Referring to the escalating tension with Saudi Arabia after the OPEC+ group’s oil decision, Kirby said: “In the Ukraine war, we don’t want any country to give moral, military or economic support to Russia. The decision of OPEC+ was definitely an economic support. Also, this decision gave Putin a relief and contributed to Putin’s war mechanism, as well as military and economic support. It’s in the moral support category.”
Kirby stated that they will make observations for the next process and evaluate whether Saudi Arabia is with Russia, and that the USA will continue to evaluate its relations with Saudi Arabia.
What happened?
The energy and oil ministers of the OPEC+ group, at the meeting held in Vienna, the capital of Austria, on October 5, decided to reduce the daily oil production by 2 million barrels as of November. Upon this decision, White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Director John Kirby made statements on October 11 that US President Biden was reconsidering relations with Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, on the other hand, told Al Arabiya television the previous day that his country had strategic relations with the United States and stated that the OPEC+ decisions to reduce crude oil production were taken for economic reasons.
OPEC decision debate between Saudi Arabia and the USA
In a statement made today by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, it was stated that the OPEC+ group examined the statements made after the decision to reduce oil production by 2 million barrels since November, and that the government completely rejected these statements, which “try to create the impression that the OPEC+ decisions were taken outside the economic framework and are not based on facts.”
Kirby, in his written statement in response to this statement, noted the following:
“We showed Saudi Arabia analysis showing that production reduction targets have no basis in the market, and we said they can wait until the next OPEC meeting to see how things go. Other OPEC member countries contacted us privately and disagreed with Saudi Arabia’s decision to go in the same direction as them. He said they felt compelled.”
