The United States and Saudi Arabia seem to be headed towards a conflict once more after the Middle Eastern nation and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) unexpectedly announced a reduction in oil supply on Sunday. The aim of this move is to increase oil prices, given concerns about reduced demand, according to Newsweek.
As per the announcement made outside a formal OPEC+ meeting, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil-producing nations, including Russia, will decrease their output supply by approximately 1.16 million barrels per day (bpd). This will be achieved through a set of voluntary cuts that will commence in May and continue until the end of the year.
That means that not only will the price of gas rise once again in the U.S., but inflation will continue to get worse because the production costs of everything will rise as well as oil prices go back up.
Meanwhile, China continues to fill the global leadership vacuum created by the Marxist ideologues running Biden's administration.
"The decision strikes a new blow to the souring relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, which has seen the Middle East nation moving closer to Russia and China under the Biden administration. Last month, China brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran aimed at restoring relations between the two countries," Newsweek noted further.
We are building the infrastructure of human freedom and empowering people to be informed, healthy and aware. Explore our decentralized, peer-to-peer, uncensorable Brighteon.io free speech platform here. Learn about our free, downloadable generative AI tools at Brighteon.AI. Every purchase at HealthRangerStore.com helps fund our efforts to build and share more tools for empowering humanity with knowledge and abundance.
The US had previously criticized the OPEC+ for its decision last year to reduce production by 2 million bpd in November, and it is now strongly opposing additional cuts to oil production by the OPEC+. It has deemed the anticipated increase in prices resulting from such cuts as unwise.
"We don't think cuts are advisable at this moment given market uncertainty—and we've made that clear," a spokesperson for the National Security Council said, Reuters reported. "We're focused on prices for American consumers, not barrels, and prices have come down significantly since last year, more than $1.50 per gallon from their peak last summer. We will continue to work with all producers and consumers to ensure energy markets support economic growth and lower prices for American consumers."
Maybe -- but they are still up significantly from the roughly $2.32 per gallon when Biden was installed after Donald Trump's reelection was stolen from him.
In the previous year, when Saudi Arabia chose to reduce production despite demands from the US to increase oil supply in order to tackle inflation, the idiots in Biden's White House accused the country of siding with Russia (sound familiar?), which had invaded Ukraine in February, as well as attempting to trigger an energy crisis in Europe. The Saudis were 'warned' that there would be consequences for their decision.
As anticipated by analysts, the announcement of the output cuts by Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ oil producers has resulted in an immediate increase in prices. According to Al Jazeera, on Monday, Brent oil futures soared by $4.30 to $84.19 per barrel, while US crude rose by $4.17 to $79.84 per barrel.
The announcement of the output cuts has somewhat eclipsed the slower core inflation reading released by the Federal Reserve on Friday. The latest data from the Fed shows that prices in the US were 6% higher in February than a year ago, which is a decline from the annual rate of 6.4% in January and the peak of 9.1% inflation recorded in June of last year.
This 'problem' is fixable. All Biden would have to do is unleash American oil producers as Trump did, and viola, prices would drop like Biden riding a bike.
He won't do that, of course, because his mind is gone and he's not really in charge.
Sources include: