Saudis dismiss Trump’s oil tweet

DONALD Trump’s administration has backed off an assertion he made hours earlier indicating he persuaded Saudi Arabia to effectively boost oil production to its maximum capacity.

The move would have threatened to blow up a fragile truce agreed by OPEC last week and inflamed the Saudi-Iran rivalry.

“Just spoke to King Salman of Saudi Arabia and explained to him that, because of the turmoil & dysfunction in Iran and Venezuela, I am asking that Saudi Arabia increase oil production, maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels, to make up the difference...Prices to high! (sic) He has agreed!,” Trump said on Twitter Saturday.

But in a statement yesterday, reported by Bloomberg, the White House said King Salman bin Abdulaziz affirmed that Saudi Arabia has 2 million barrels a day of spare production capacity “which it will prudently use if and when necessary to ensure market balance and stability, and in co-ordination with its producer partners, to respond to any eventuality.”

The White House statement aligned with one by the state-run Saudi Press Agency saying that the king and Trump, in a phone call yesterday, discussed efforts by the oil-producing countries to compensate potential shortages in oil supply.

The two leaders stressed the importance of maintaining oil- market stability, according to the report.

The agency did not say the leaders agreed and did not make any reference to 2 million barrels.

If the Saudis had agreed to Trump’s request, “that means he is calling on them to walk out from OPEC,” Iran’s OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, said in an interview.

“There is no way one coun- try could go 2 million barrels a day above their production allocation unless they are walking out of OPEC.”

At a meeting of OPEC in Vienna last weekend, Saudi Arabia – the group’s largest producer – joined other members in agreeing to scale back its over-compliance with output cuts that have been in place since the beginning of 2017. Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih indicated the group’s action would add nearly 1 million barrels a day to the market.

Saudi Arabia has the capacity to pump a maximum of 12.04 million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency.

I AM ASKING THAT SAUDI ARABIA INCREASE OIL PRODUCTION, MAYBE UP TO 2,000,000 BARRELS. HE HAS AGREED! DONALD TRUMP’S TWEET