Saudi Arabia: We won't cut production even if oil is $20
The Saudis have thrown down the gauntlet to more expensive producers.
Anyone betting on oil prices recovering in 2015 might want to look away now. The price of a barrel of Brent Crude (the main global oil benchmark) fell back below $60 (£39) yesterday after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said the kingdom wouldn’t be cutting production – even if black gold plunges to $20.
‘As a policy for Opec, and I convinced Opec of this… it is not in the interest of Opec producers to cut their production, whatever the price is,’ Ali al-Naimi said in an unusually forthright interview with the Middle East Economic Survey. ‘Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant.’
Brent Crude is now selling for around $60.45, having fallen by more than 45% this year since its peak in June.
