Saudis give US no immediate pledge to boost oil output

Saudi Arabia has given the US no concrete commitments on boosting oil output and will only do so if the market is in deficit, state minister of foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir said in comments aired early Saturday.

"Saudi Arabia is committed to stabilizing international oil markets and making sure that the markets are adequately supplied with crude oil," al-Jubeir said following meetings in Jeddah late on Friday between Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US President Joe Biden.

"We do that by consulting with our Opec and Opec+ partners to assess whether there is a need to bring more oil onto the markets," al-Jubeir said. "These assessments will be made based on what the market needs are. If there is a market need, there will be steps taken to ensure that those needs are met."

Al-Jubeir's comments appeared to contradict the US president's own assessment of the discussions, which he said gave him the belief that Saudi Arabia would take "further steps" soon to ensure adequate global oil supplies.

"I am doing all I can to increase the supply for the US, which I expect to happen," Biden said late on Friday. "The Saudis share that urgency and based on our discussion…I expect we'll see further steps in the coming weeks."

Opec and its non-Opec partners, known formally as Opec+, next meet virtually on 3 August.

Biden arrived in Jeddah on Friday afternoon for the third and final leg of his Middle East tour, which began in Israel on 13 July. Biden is due to depart the Red Sea port city on Saturday afternoon, following a Mideast Gulf summit bringing together the leaders of the US, the six Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries as well as Iraq, Egypt and Jordan.

More crude not the answer

With the US facing record-high gasoline prices, and despite his best efforts to suggest otherwise, Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia has been framed by many at home as being primarily about energy, and securing a commitment from Opec's largest oil producer to pump more oil.

White House officials also said in the lead up to Biden's visit to the kingdom that they were hopeful Opec and its non-Opec partners would take additional action to raise oil supplies to help address rising gasoline prices at home.

But al-Jubeir dismissed the link altogether, saying that the record high pump prices had much more to do with a lack of refining capacity in the US than a lack of crude oil supply in world markets.

"With regard to the price of gasoline in the US, that's really a function of a lack of refining capacity," al-Jubeir said. "The US has not built a refinery in more than 40 years… so increasing crude oil supplies to the US is not going to alleviate the problem."

By Nader Itayim