Saudi Arabia To Face Consequences From US After OPEC+ Decision

DOHA : Saudi Arabia will face consequences after the decision of the alliance of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and non-cartel producers (OPEC+) to decrease oil production.

As US President Joe Biden has already demonstrated that he “does not forget things,” Professor Laurent A. Lambert of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies .

The OPEC+ alliance agreed last week to cut oil production by 2 million barrels per day from November and will take production levels agreed for August as a reference point.

The move was made in response to uncertainty in global oil market outlooks, in part caused by Western sanctions on Russian energy deliveries and the G7 plans to introduce a price cap on Russian crude.

The decision was met with a backlash from the United States, which demanded an increase in production to combat rising domestic prices.

“Consequences they are and they will be, that is certain, because Joe Biden is someone who has demonstrated in the past that he does not forget things. He is someone who will calculate his retaliation and there will be,” Lambert said.

However, the expert believes that the strategic partnership between the US and Saudi Arabia will not end after this decision.

“Now does that mean that the strategic partnership between the US and Saudi Arabia will come to an end? I do not believe so. What is very likely, almost certain, to happen is the degradation of the economic ties, at least in the short or medium term,” Lambert noted, adding that military supplies may also be affected, as Saudi Arabia is dependent on the supply of US combat systems.

Lambert says Washington is not ready to terminate relations with Saudi Arabia, but the US will make it clear to Saudi Arabia, which is one of the main oil producers in OPEC+, that the alliance’s decision not to meet the US demands will affect Riyadh.

“The US will not totally degrade their relations with Saudi Arabia, which is a major market, but they may deteriorate it to make the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia (Mohammed bin Salman) feel the pain of not going the direction the US strongly demanded them to go,” Lambert said.

On Thursday, the Saudi foreign ministry denied that the OPEC+ decision to cut oil production was politically motivated against some states.