Saudi Arabia will not sell oil to any country imposing price caps, energy minister says

Riyadh has proactively embarked on expanding capacity to 13.3 million barrels a day by 2027

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman speaks during the Saudi Green Initiative Forum in Riyadh in October 2021. Reuters

Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said that the kingdom would not sell oil to any country that imposes a price ceiling on supplies.

He said in an interview published in Energy Intelligence on Tuesday that placing a price cap on oil would invariably lead to market instability and he warned of reduction in production.

The kingdom is looking to expand production capacity to 13 million barrels per day by 2027.

“The expansion is already under way in the engineering phase and the first increment is expected to come on-stream in 2025,” Prince Abdulaziz said. He added that Opec+ had successfully brought stability and transparency to the oil market.

“Spare capacity and global emergency stocks are the ultimate safety net for the oil market in the face of potential shocks. I have repeatedly warned that global demand growth will outpace current global spare capacity, while emergency reserves are at a historic low.”

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the Opec decision to reduce its output target by two million barrels a day in October last year was made for purely economic reasons.

Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al Jubeir said the kingdom does not politicise oil.

“We don’t see oil as a weapon. We see oil as our commodity,” he said.

“Our objective is to bring stability to the oil market and our record is very clear on this not over the past few weeks but over the past decades.”