Saudi Arabia’s ‘whatever it takes’ approach to cut oil supply more like ‘whatever’
London — Now is the time to maximise the effect of oil cartel Opec’s oil production cuts, yet the market is still waiting for the group’s biggest member to show it is doing "whatever it takes" to eliminate the global oversupply. Opec’s best chance to make a big dent in the lingering glut in the US — and with it, reverse oil’s three-year slump — lies in the remaining weeks of peak summertime demand. That’s already become harder because of the resurgence in output from Opec members exempt from cuts, while there are no signs yet that Saudi Arabia, the group’s de-facto leader, is willing to cut as deeply as it did earlier in the year. "Saudi Arabia has gone quiet on the solution of ‘whatever it takes’ to force the market into rebalancing," said Olivier Jakob, MD at consultants Petromatrix in Zug, Switzerland. Echoing a famous pledge by the European Central Bank, Saudi Arabian energy minister Khalid al-Falih has repeatedly vowed to do what’s necessary to end the oil rout. While the count...
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