Biden adviser says OPEC+ production cut was mostly a political move

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(Bloomberg) – President Joe Biden’s top energy adviser said the cut in oil production by Saudi Arabia and its allies was a largely political move that won’t deter the US administration from trying to cut oil production. domestic energy prices.

Amos Hochstein, who has been involved in US oil diplomacy with Saudi Arabia this year, said the actual cuts under OPEC+’s decision to cut production targets by 2 million barrels a day to from November would represent only about a quarter of the overall figure.

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« So the impact on the market won’t be as big, » he said on CBS’ « Face the Nation » show on Sunday. « So it was more of a grand political statement by OPEC. »

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OPEC and its partners are an alliance of 23 countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia. Saudi Arabia said the cuts were an attempt to dampen market volatility, an explanation the White House called a Saudi attempt to « turn or deflect » in an October 13 statement.

« Clearly no one can argue that this was justified for an economic reason, » Hochstein said.

Biden announced an additional drawdown of 15 million barrels from U.S. emergency reserves last week and said he had instructed his team to prepare for further releases if necessary in a bid to rein in oil prices. ‘essence.

Hochstein said « we make sure we’re ready, so if we need to do additional releases, we can do them very, very quickly. »