Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman called this week’s surprise oil output cut for February and March a “wonderful present” for the oil industry and will affect both domestic sales and exports, and said that the choice for a cut was commercial and not political.
The comments were made in a Bloomberg interview with Prince Abdulaziz, conducted by Annemarie Hordern.
Prince Abdulaziz also added details about the cuts, noting that the Kingdom’s additional million-barrel-a-day oil production cut will last two months, and then the supplies will be returned to the market, he said. The extra cutback in February and March — which comes on top of curbs Riyadh is already making with OPEC+ — will end in the same fashion as the supplementary reduction made last summer, according to the Bloomberg interview.
“We gave the oil industry a wonderful present and a wonderful surprise,” he said. “We’re extending support and help to the industry.”
Hordern asked Prince Abdulaziz about recent EIA data which show that last week’s crude imports from Saudi Arabia to the United States plunged to zero for the first time in 35 years, wondering if the move was a way for Saudi Arabia to drive down U.S. inventory levels. Prince Abdulaziz said that the decision was taken by Aramco, not the government, and was a business calculation the same as would be made by other oil companies.
Saudi Arabia was completely alone in making the decision to deepen its cut, and didn’t consult with any of its fellow OPEC+ members, according to Prince Abdulaziz in the interview with Bloomberg, who added that it would have been “excruciating” for many of them — who have often struggled to implement their agreed reductions — to make a further sacrifice, he said.
[Click here to watch Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman’s interview with Annemarie Hordern of Bloomberg.com]
