Earlier headlines here:
Reports that the US is lobbying OPEC+ nations not to cut oil output (… well, d’uh)
While it should come as no surprise the US in engaging in such a campaign, CNN have more detail on what it entails:
- Amos Hochstein, Biden’s top energy envoy, has played a leading role in the lobbying effort, which has been far more extensive than previously reported amid extreme concern in the White House over the potential cut. Hochstein, along with top national security official Brett McGurk and the administration’s special envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking, traveled to Jeddah late last month to discuss a range of energy and security issues as a follow-up to Biden’s high-profile visit to Saudi Arabia in July.
- Officials across the administration’s economic and foreign policy teams have also been involved with reaching out to OPEC governments as part of the latest effort to stave off a production cut.
- The White House has asked Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to make the case personally to some Gulf state finance ministers, including from Kuwait and the UAE, and try to convince them that a production cut would be extremely damaging to the global economy.
- “There is great political risk to your reputation and relations with the United States and the west if you move forward,” the White House draft talking points suggested Yellen communicate to her foreign counterparts.
