LONDON, Sept 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman thinks he needs to sweeten his oil lollipop.
The Saudi energy minister has announced that the world’s top oil exporter will extend its 1 million barrels a day production cuts for another three months until the end of this year.
On the surface, global trends are helpful for oil, reducing the need for extended OPEC+ cuts.
Besides uncertainties over the effectiveness of China’s latest property measures, one surprise has been the strength of Iranian supplies, which are set to rise by 1 million barrels this year to 3.5 million barrels per day by late September.
Moreover, Washington may not sit idly by if higher oil prices sabotage the Federal Reserve’s inflation target and damage the economy.
Persons:
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Brent, Yawen Chen, Hong Kong, Neil Unmack, Streisand Neto
Organizations:
Reuters, Organization of, Petroleum, X, Hong, Thomson
Locations:
Saudi, Russia, U.S, China, Washington