Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said in an interview with Energy Intelligence on Tuesday that the OPEC+ alliance will respect production cuts agreed in October by the end of the year, Reuters cites.

“There are some who continue to believe that we are going to adjust the deal … I tell them they need to wait until Friday, December 29, 2023 to show them our commitment to the current deal,” he told Energy Intelligence.

Prince Abdulaziz also said the NOPEC bill proposed by the US Senate is a different concept from the price ceilings imposed by Western countries on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, but which have a similar potential impact on the oil market.

Last week, US senators from both political parties reintroduced the so-called Prohibition of Petroleum Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) bill.

If passed, it would amend US antitrust laws to remove sovereign immunity that protected OPEC+ members and their national oil companies from price-fixing lawsuits.

Over two decades, there have been several attempts to pass the NOPEC bill.

“The NOPEC bill fails to recognize the importance of maintaining reserve capacity and the consequences of not having reserve capacity for market stability,” he said.

The NOPEC bill would undermine investment in oil capacity and lead to a drop in global supplies, he said, and any price cap would have a similar effect.

The prince said that price caps, whether imposed on a country or a group of countries, would lead to an “individual or collective backlash with intolerable consequences in the form of enormous instability and instability.”

“If there is a price cap on Saudi oil exports, we will not sell oil to any country that imposes a price cap on our supply, and we will cut oil production, and I would not be surprised if others do the same,” he said. . minister.

On December 5, the G7 countries, the European Union and Australia imposed a price limit on sea cargoes of Russian oil, setting it at $60 per barrel. Russia said it would cut supply by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) starting in March.

Prince Abdulaziz also said that growth in global demand will exceed current global reserve capacity, while emergency stocks are at their lowest levels. “Therefore, it is important to put in place policies that support the necessary investments to build back-up capacity in a timely manner and maintain global emergency stocks at adequate and comfortable levels,” he argued.

Despite forecasts of global economic growth, the prince said uncertainty remained about the prospects for a recovery in demand as China reopens after a strict zero-spread policy for COVID-19. Another question mark is how aggressively central banks will raise rates to curb inflation, he said.

• The price of oil fell to a minimum in four months / The market fears a recession