Saudi Oil Minister Questions Need to Cut Oil Production

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi on Wednesday shrugged off suggestions that the world’s biggest crude exporter might cut production to reverse the deepest price slump in years, saying the kingdom’s output had remained steady through last month.

Naimi’s comments on the sidelines of an annual U.N. climate change conference in Lima, Peru, stuck to the message he laid out at OPEC’s meeting two weeks ago: The market would be left to balance itself without the kingdom’s intervention. That stance was seen as a shift from longstanding Saudi policy to act as a swing supplier.

Oil prices have dropped $13 a barrel since that November meeting. Yet asked on Wednesday whether he thought it would be necessary to reduce oil production prior to OPEC’s next scheduled meeting in June, Naimi responded: “Why should we cut production? Why?”

Reuters

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