LONDON (Reuters) – OPEC+ has yet to react to a call from U.S. President Donald Trump for lower oil prices, with delegates from the group pointing to a plan already in place to start raising oil output from April.
Trump on Thursday announced he would be asking Saudi Arabia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to bring down the cost of oil – a call he often made in his first term in the White House.
Speaking on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday, Saudi Arabia’s Economy Minister Faisal al-Ibrahim said Saudi Arabia and OPEC’s position is for long-term oil market stability, when asked about Trump’s comments.
OPEC+, or OPEC, Russia and other allies as the group is known, does not target oil prices and already has a plan to begin raising output from April 2025, having delayed the hike several times due to weak demand.
“I think this is already in line with OPEC’s easing policy in April,” one delegate from the group said with reference to the U.S. president’s comments.
OPEC and the Saudi government communications office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Oil prices have risen this year, with Brent crude reaching almost $83 a barrel on Jan. 15, the highest since August, supported by concern about the supply impact of U.S. sanctions on Russia. Prices have since eased to below $79 on Friday.
Trump also said that if prices came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, reacting to those comments on Friday, said the conflict is about national security, not oil.
In his first term, Trump often urged OPEC and Saudi Arabia to lower prices and make up for a shortfall in exports from Iran, with his comments on OPEC sometimes having a bigger impact on prices than OPEC’s own.
OPEC+ has a chance to review its policy when a panel of top ministers called the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee meets on Feb. 3.
Based on OPEC+ previous practice, a decision to go ahead with the April hike is expected around early March.
(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, Alex Lawler, Yousef Saba and Maha El Dahan, writing by Alex Lawler, Editing by Louise Heavens)
