Politics

State Dept. Dodges On Whether Biden Asked Saudis To Delay Oil Cut For Midterms

[Screenshot Youtube State Department]

Brianna Lyman News and Commentary Writer
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The State Department dodged a question Monday about whether President Joe Biden asked Saudi Arabia to delay oil cuts ahead of the midterms.

The Daily Caller’s Dylan Housman asked the State Department if the administration specifically demanded that Saudi Arabia delay their decision to slash oil output by one month, which would make it after the midterms. Housman also noted U.S. officials were not invited to a Saudi investment conference scheduled for the end of the month in a break from previous years.

“As it relates to a specific meeting, I don’t have anything or sorry, I had the, uh, specific request for any kind of delay. I don’t have anything to offer on that, but I think what’s important here is that over the course of this administration, as it relates to the conversation around energy, we have been quite clear at every corner, that supply should meet demand,” Vedant Patel, the principal deputy spokesperson, responded.

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“As this country, as our economy and economies around the world continue to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts the pandemic had on our economy and economies around the world that demand for energy should be met by appropriate supply, and so, in recent weeks, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conveyed us to privately and publicly that they had an intention to reduce oil production, which not only would impact supply, but it would also increase rushing revenues and blunt the effectiveness of the sanctions in this country … on Russia,” Patel continued. (RELATED: Accusations Fly As Saudis Say Biden Used US Resources For Political Gain)

Patel said the U.S. presented an analysis to Saudi Arabia showing that reducing oil output would be counterintuitive to the sanctions the U.S. and other allies have been placing on Russia and that the Saudi’s could wait a few months to make that decision.

OPEC+ announced Oct. 5 they would slash output by two million barrels per day, prompting the White House to threaten consequences.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a statement Wednesday claiming the Biden administration pressured OPEC+ to delay oil production cuts until November. The production cut would have occurred just days before the midterm election, potentially hurting Democrats at the polls. The White House rejected the claim that Biden’s request was politically motivated, with National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson saying it was “categorically false to connect this to U.S. elections.”