RIYADH: Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman warned that Western sanctions against Russia could result in a shortage of energy sup-plies in the future.
“All of those so-called sanctions, embargoes, lack of investments, they will convolute into one thing and one thing on-ly, a lack of energy supplies of all kinds when they are most needed,” Prince Abdulaziz told an industry conference in Riyadh in answer to a question over how trade measures would affect the energy market.
Since the Russia-Ukraine conflict started, the U.S. and its Western allies have imposed a series of sanctions against Russia including reducing Rus-sian energy exports.
Asked what lessons had been learnt from energy market dynamics in 2022, Prince Abdulaziz said the most important one was for the rest of the world to “trust OPEC+.”
Saudi Arabia is the de facto leader of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The OPEC+, an alliance that includes mem-bers of OPEC and others including Russia, agreed last year to cut its production target by 2 million barrels per day, about 2 percent of world demand, from November until the end of 2023. Despite drawing a sharp response from the U.S., Saudi said the cut was necessary to respond to rising interest rates in the West and a weaker global economy.
An OPEC+ panel that met last Wednesday endorsed the decision and the main message throughout the meeting was that the group would stay the course until the end of the agreement. –Agencies
