Saudi Arabia urges compliance with OPEC cuts

Saudi Arabia urges compliance with OPEC cuts

LONDON – Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud warned traders Thursday against betting heavily in the oil market, saying he will try to make the market jumpy and promised those who gamble on the oil price would be “ouching like hell.”

The Saudi minister also pressed oil cartel OPEC and its allies to comply fully with production cuts amid falling crude prices, insisting that doing so was “not an act of charity.”

Last month, ministers of OPEC nations and other major oil producers stuck to an agreement to lower production, underlining that only strict compliance could restore stability to prices sent plummeting by the coronavirus pandemic.

But the cartel has called out laggards, including Nigeria and Iraq, for over-producing and failing to implement their share of the cuts.

“Full compliance is not