Saudi Arabia again pushes back on calls for more crude

Saudi Arabia again pushes back on calls for more crude

Dubai, 20 October (Argus) — Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman today again pushed back against calls for Opec and its non-Opec partners to raise their collective crude output more aggressively to help temper rising prices, and said the current energy crunch is not down to a shortage of crude.

"[Saudi Arabia] has been the guardian of energy security when it comes to oil. And in doing so, we have asked ourselves deliberately here what we can do as an additional contribution to mitigate the situation," Prince Abdulaziz told the India Energy Forum by CERAWeek.

"Unfortunately, for the first time, we see our role extremely limited… because the issue is not availability of crude," he said. "Even if we made the crude available in tons and tons, who is going to burn it? Where are the refineries that will convert it? And who is in need? Are they in need of crude? Or gas?"