Are Surprise Oil Production Cuts a Saudi Message to Washington?

Apr 3, 2023
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Also published in The Hill
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About the Authors
Simon Henderson
Simon Henderson

Simon Henderson is the Baker Senior Fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at The Washington Institute, specializing in energy matters and the conservative Arab states of the Persian Gulf.

Articles & Testimony

One hopes that the U.S. intelligence community picked up all the chatter between oil producers even if energy analysts and the news media did not.

The OPEC+ cartel had scheduled a virtual meeting for April 3. On March 28, Bloomberg reported that “OPEC+ shows no sign of changing oil output at a meeting next week.” Well, guess what? On April 2, Saudi Arabia announced a “voluntary cut of 500,000 barrels per day in coordination with some other OPEC and non-OPEC countries.” The total being taken off the market is more than 1 million b/d. The decision has both political and economic dimensions—and perhaps, consequences. So, we are in for another round or two of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman versus President Biden stories...

Read the full article on the Hill website.

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