Saudi foreign minister: OPEC+ production targets reflect consensus

Shafaq News / Decisions on oil output taken by OPEC+ countries reflect consensus in the group, the Saudi foreign minister said on Tuesday after reports of differences among members.

A media report that the United Arab Emirates is considering leaving OPEC is “far from the truth,” two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters last week.

Saudi foreign minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud played down the Wall Street Journal report of divergence between Saudi Arabia and the UAE on a range of policy areas including OPEC and Yemen.

“All decisions in OPEC and OPEC+ are made through very extensive dialogue between all the partners ... Every statement I see that is made on the record from all of the partners in OPEC+ reflects that consensus,” he told reporters in London, referring to members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and others including Russia.

He also played down the idea of a wider divide between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

“We have a very, very strong, robust partnership between the UAE and the Kingdom. Do we agree on everything all the time? Probably not. But reports of divergence - that are often overdramatized, usually based on unnamed sources - don’t understand how deep the relationship is,” he said.

He restated the position of the Saudi energy minister who said last month the current OPEC+ deal on oil output would be locked in until the end of the year.

“We always say that we are committed to a stable market ... (the minister of energy) feels the market doesn’t need any production changes until the end of the year,” Prince Faisal said.

(Reuters)