- Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman: “The world is running out of energy capacity at all levels,”.
- Saudis see underinvestment in refining capacity as on of the reasons for soaring fuel prices.
- UAE’s Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazrouei: OPEC may not be able to guarantee sufficient oil supply.
Persistently low investment in conventional energy sources risks leaving the world running out of spare production capacity for crude oil, refined products, and natural gas, the energy ministers of two of OPEC’s top producers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said on Tuesday.
Not enough investment in global refining capacity is one of the key drivers of the global rally in gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel prices.
Prince Abdulaziz bin Salma
The UAE minister also said that the extreme volatility in the oil market in recent weeks is the result of some buyers boycotting certain crudes; it is not connected with OPEC+ and is outside the alliance’s control, in an apparent reference to the boycott of Russian oil from Western buyers.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are actually the only two oil producers believed to have sufficient spare oil production capacity, but they are unwilling to tap it, saying the market is balanced and any extreme volatility is the result of geopolitical factors