Saudi says high gas prices in US due to American refinery shortage

The lack of American refinery production is to blame for higher US gas prices, Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs Adel Al-Jubeir told Fox News.

He stated that the refining shortage has existed for more than 20 years, as the US has not built refineries in decades. 

The minister said that Saudi Arabia does not “politicise” oil and the shortage is not related to the fundamentals of crude oil supply and demand. 

“Oil is not a weapon,” Al-Jubeir said. “We look at oil as a commodity and we look at oil as important to the global economy in which we have a huge stake.

“The idea that Saudi Arabia would do this to harm the US or to be in any way politically involved is absolutely not correct at all,” he noted.

OPEC+ agreed steep oil production cuts last Wednesday, curbing supply in an already tight market, as the US administration called the surprise decision shortsighted.

Saudi Arabia said the cut of two million barrels per day of output – equal to two percent of global supply – was necessary to respond to rising interest rates in the West and a weaker global economy.

The White House said President Joe Biden would continue to assess whether to release further strategic oil stocks to lower prices.