OPEC Move Shows the Limits of Biden’s Fist-Bump Diplomacy With the Saudis

And it demonstrated anew that, even in an era in which oil should be diminishing in importance as a source of energy, OPEC Plus acts in its own self-interests. In this case, sustaining the price per barrel has proved far more important to its members than making Russia pay a price for invading Ukraine.

The meeting of the OPEC Plus energy cartel, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, brought together an array of foreign and economic issues that affect everything from domestic politics in the United States to the war in Ukraine.

For days, the White House sought to prevent the cut of two million barrels a day. It called on some of its closest Arab allies — starting with Saudi Arabia, where Mr. Biden visited in July, and met with the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, over the objections of human rights organizations and even some of his own advisers.

He took the risk, officials said at the time, to address a variety of national security concerns — but mostly to increase the supply of oil — even if it meant withstanding the critique that he was partaking in the rehabilitation of Prince Mohammed, who the C.I.A. concluded approved the assassination of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. During his campaign for the presidency, Mr. Biden had called Saudi Arabia a “pariah.”

The quiet understanding emerging from the trip was that Saudi Arabia would increase its production by about 750,000 barrels a day, and that the United Arab Emirates would follow suit with an additional 500,000, pushing down gas prices and worsening President Vladimir V. Putin’s ability to fund a war that was stretching much longer — and with much higher casualties — than Mr. Biden had expected.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/05/us/politics/opec-biden-saudi-arabia.html