White House pushes back on Saudi claim oil cut was 'purely economic'

The United States presented Saudi Arabia with an analysis showing there was no market basis to lower oil production before the OPEC+ decision to cut output, a White House spokesman said on Thursday, pushing back against Riyadh's claims the output cut was "purely economic."

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, which include Russia, lowered their production target by 2 million barrels per day last week, even though world supplies are considered tight. Of those cuts, experts expect an actual production cut of about half that level.

"The Saudi foreign ministry can try to spin or deflect, but the facts are simple," White House spokesman John Kirby said in a statement, saying that cutting output would "increase Russian revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions" against Moscow after it invaded Ukraine in February.

Kirby also said other nations in the oil cartel told the United States privately they "felt coerced to support Saudi's direction."

Kirby said that the United States showed the Saudis an analysis that suggested there was no "market basis" to cut production targets, and that they could wait for the next OPEC meeting.

Saudi Arabian officials on Thursday rejected the idea that the cuts were political, saying delaying cuts would have had negative economic consequences.