No 1973-style oil embargo, says Falih
LONDON/MONTREAL: Saudi Arabia has no intention of unleashing a 1973-style oil embargo on Western consumers and will isolate oil from politics, said the Saudi energy minister yesterday amid a worsening crisis over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
“There is no intention,” Khalid al-Falih told Russia’s TASS news agency when asked if there could be a repetition of the 1973-style oil embargo.
Top United States lawmakers turned their ire on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Salman on Sunday and said they believed he ordered the killing of Khashoggi, although the Trump administration maintained a more cautious stance.
Several US lawmakers have suggested imposing sanctions on Saudi Arabia in recent days while the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter, has pledged to retaliate to any sanctions with “bigger measures”.
“This incident will pass. But Saudi Arabia is a very responsible country, for decades we used our oil policy as responsible economic tool and isolated it from politics,” said Falih.
“My role as the energy minister is to implement my government’s constructive and responsible role and stabilising the world’s energy markets accordingly, contributing to global economic development,” he said.
Falih said if oil prices went up, it would slow down the global economy and trigger a recession.
But he added that with Iranian sanctions coming into full force next month, there was no guarantee oil prices would not go higher.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada could cancel a multi-billion dollar defence contract with Saudi Arabia following the death of Khashoggi, in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
Trudeau, speaking on Frenchlanguage talk show “Tout Le Monde En Parle” — recorded on Thursday, before Riyadh confirmed Khashoggi’s death at its Istanbul consulate — insisted Canada would “always defend human rights, including with Saudi Arabia”.