Former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal said Saudi Arabia would only consider cutting production if other countries, including non-OPEC producer Russia, joined in.
The Reuters story has helped WTI crude rebound to $68.75 over the past hour but a comment from a former official that certainly doesn’t indicate anything imminent is a mediocre reason to buy — at best.
“The Kingdom is not going to give up market share at this time for anybody and allow producers whether in Russia, Nigeria, Iran and other places to sell to Saudi customers because we cut our production,” Prince Turki said during a visit to London.
“If there is a reasonably guaranteed oversight of production quotas – if they ever are agreed with and someone can definitively say there will never be under-the-table selling of the oil from these other countries – maybe then I think Saudi Arabia and other oil producers would be willing to cut down production,” he said.
“But we have tried that in the past and unfortunately other producers took advantage,” the prince added.
