KSA minister: High gas prices due to Washington's incompetency

• 

Responding to Washington's furious reaction that OPEC+, led by Saudi Arabia, has decided to cut oil production by 2 million barrels a day, Saudi Minister of State Adel Al-Jubeir pointed to Washington's incompetency in dealing with the high prices at home. 

"With due respect, the reason you have high prices in the United States is because you have a refining shortage that has been in existence for more than 20 years. You haven't built refineries in decades," said Adel Al-Jubeir speaking to Fox News on Friday. 

Al-Jubeir pointed at US President Joe Biden for the high gas prices, saying that Washington should have been extracting more oil from US wells, increasing fuel production at home. 

OPEC+'s cutting production by 2 million barrels a day, according to Washington, is a huge boost for Russia as the European Union works to enforce a ban on Russian oil. The OPEC+ alliance, in this context, aligns with Russia's interests according to Washington. 

"Oil is not a weapon. It's not a fighter plane. It's not a tank. You can't shoot it. You can't do anything with it. We look at oil as a commodity and we look at oil as important to the global economy in which we have a huge stake. The idea that Saudi Arabia would do this to harm the U.S. or to be in any way politically involved is absolutely not correct at all," said Al-Jubeir. 

Listen to Saudi Arabian minister of state and Climate Envoy Adel Al-Jubeir 🎙

Regarding the blame game that been played against Saudi 🇸🇦 and it's role in the oil market.

" Oil is not a weapon to be used"#OOTT #OPEC pic.twitter.com/J9dwI7339a

— عايض آل سويدان (@AyidhSalemQ) October 8, 2022

Shifting the motives behind Biden's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, Al-Jubeir said that oil prices were not necessarily up for discussion in Riyadh, but rather their bilateral relationship. 

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House spokesperson, described OPEC+'s decision as a "mistake" and that it was "misguided."

In addition to the production cuts, OPEC+ also announced that it will be cooperating further with members of the OPEC cartel as well as non-members - and most importantly, Russia. 

OPEC+ justified its decision by arguing that it was based on "the 'uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks."

The Biden administration has recently assembled its top energy, economic, and foreign policy officials and entrusted them with lobbying Middle East allies such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait to vote against decreasing oil production.

To persuade its OPEC allies, the US proposed to purchase back up to 200 million barrels of oil from its OPEC partners.