OPEC+ members line up to endorse output cut after U.S. coercion claim

CAIRO Oct 16 (Reuters) – OPEC+ member states lined up on Sunday to endorse a steep production cut agreed this month after the White House, stepping up a war of words with Riyadh, claimed Saudi Arabia had coerced some other nations into supporting the move.

Washington noted on Thursday that the cut would boost Russia’s foreign earnings and suggested it had been engineered for political reasons by Riyadh, which on Sunday emphatically denied it was supporting Moscow in its war with Ukraine.

The kingdom’s defense minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, also said the Oct 5 decision to reduce output by 2 million barrels per day – which was taken despite oil markets being tight – was unanimous and based on economic factors.

His comment was echoed by Iraq, OPEC’s second largest exporter, and several other producer states.

“There is complete consensus among OPEC+ countries that the best approach in dealing with the oil market conditions during the current period of uncertainty and lack of clarity is a pre-emptive approach that supports market stability and provides the guidance needed for the future,” Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO said in a statement.

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation Chief Executive Officer Nawaf Saud al-Sabah also welcomed the decision by OPEC+ – which includes other major producers, notably Russia – and said the country was keen to maintain a balanced oil markets, state news agency KUNA reported.

Oman and Bahrain also said in separate statements that OPEC had unanimously agreed on the reduction.

Algeria’s energy minister called the Oct. 5 decision “historic” and he and OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais, visiting Algeria, expressed their full confidence in it, Algeria’s Ennahar TV reported.

Ghais later told a news conference that the organisation targeted a balance between supply and demand rather than a specific price.

Oil inventories in major economies are at lower levels than when OPEC has cut output in the past.

But some analysts have said recent volatility in crude markets could be remedied by a cut that would help attract investors to an underperforming market.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday that “more than one” OPEC member had felt coerced by Saudi Arabia into the vote, adding that the cut would also increase Russia’s revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

Khalid bin Salman said on Sunday he was “astonished” by claims his country was “standing with Russia in its war with Ukraine.”

“It is telling that these false accusations did not come from the Ukrainian government,” the king’s younger son wrote on Twitter.

Reporting by Moataz Mohamed, Yasmin Hussien and Maha El Dahan; additional reporting by Nayer Abdallah and Ahmed Tolba; Editing by Louise Heavens, Alexandra Hudson

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