Saudi Arabia criticizes Biden over oil reserve release
The US president recently announced that he would sell some emergency oil reserves in response to the Saudi-backed oil supply cut.
Saudi Arabia’s energy leader appeared to take a swipe at US President Joe Biden today.
Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said during a conference in Riyadh that “losing emergency stocks may be painful in the months to come,” as reported by Reuters.
What it means: The comment was a reference to Biden’s decision last week to sell 15 million barrels of oil from the United States’ strategic petroleum reserves. The move followed Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of the OPEC+ alliance deciding to slash oil production for the month of November. Biden had been asking Saudi Arabia for months to boost production due to high fuel prices in the United States.
The Biden administration publicly criticized Saudi Arabia over the decision, accusing the ally of benefiting Russia amid the war in Ukraine. Saudi Arabia has said the decision was motivated by economic factors. Oil prices were up and down in the lead-up to the OPEC+ decision.
