And in Saudi Arabia they say that the topic of oil was not discussed at the American-Arab summit.
Key crude oil producers have spare capacity and, most likely, they will increase supplies after President Joe Biden's visit to the Middle East, said Amos Hochstein, a senior official of the State Department for Energy Affairs, on Sunday.
Speaking on CBS's “Face the Nation,” Hochstein said, “Based on what we heard on the trip, I'm sure we'll see some more steps in the coming weeks,” according to VOA.
According to him, it is not only about Saudi Arabia. “We met with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Saudi Arabia. I won't go into how much spare capacity there is in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, etc. But there are additional free capacities. There are opportunities to increase production,” he said.
Biden visited Saudi Arabia last Friday as part of his first trip to the Middle East as president, hoping to broker a deal to increase oil production. The US president then spoke at a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council plus Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. The Council includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Later, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said that oil was not discussed at the US-Arab summit on Saturday. He said OPEC+ will continue to assess market conditions and do what is necessary. The next meeting of OPEC+, which also includes Russia, will be held on August 3.
Also read: Biden fails to secure serious commitments on security, oil at Arab summit – Reuters
Prices Oil has soared to its highest level since 2008, rising above $139 a barrel in March, after the US and Europe imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. Then the prices declined to the psychological mark of $100.
