The Saudi energy minister on Tuesday denounced the release of emergency oil reserves which, according to him, is intended to “manipulate the markets”, at a time when Riyadh and its US partner are tearing each other apart over the price of black gold. This tirade comes a week after President Joe Biden announced that the United States would continue to draw on its strategic reserves in an attempt to stabilize prices at gas stations.
“People are running out of emergency stocks, depleting them, using them as a mechanism to manipulate markets when their basic goal was to alleviate supply shortages,” said Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, without saying. name the United States. state
Washington accuses Riyadh of playing into Russia’s game
Joe Biden’s announcement to extract an additional 15 million barrels from strategic reserves is part of a program that plans to release a total of 180 million to deal with price increases related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This announcement also followed two weeks after the decision of the oil exporting countries, Saudi Arabia and Russia in the lead, to reduce their production quotas to support prices, which drew the ire of Washington.
The US administration has accused its Saudi partner of playing into the hands of Russia, which is seeking to finance its war against Ukraine. Ryad denied, assuring that his position was based solely on economic considerations. After experiencing a spectacular rebound at the beginning of the war, surpassing the symbolic threshold of 100 dollars per barrel, oil prices have fallen in recent months although they remain high.
Source: BFM TV
