Saudi Arabia has faced fierce criticism from its US partners following the OPEC + agreement to cut oil production. The Kingdom denied allegations that it politicized oil to harm the US. Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, assured Washington that there were no political motives behind the decision to reduce oil output. The minister claimed that Saudi Arabia was in no way responsible for soaring gas prices in the US. Instead, he reminded Washington that America’s inadequate refining capacity was behind the uptick in fuel prices. “With due respect, the reason you have high prices in the United States is because you have a refining shortage that has been in existence for more than 20 years, you haven’t built refineries in decades,” Al-Jubeir explained. Earlier, US President Joe Biden blamed Saudi Arabia and Russia for increased fuel costs in the US after OPEC+ had decided to slash oil production starting from November this year. The allies agreed to impose an output cut of 2 million barrels per day.
