While America’s economy takes a giant hit for record high gas and oil prices?
Things are moving around in the background…
The American President IS desperate to drive down those prices economically and politically….
And?
That means backing away from dealing with other countries domestic actions….
“President Joe Biden is leaning towards making a visit to Saudi Arabia — a trip that would likely bring him face-to-face with the Saudi crown prince he once shunned as a killer,” the AP reports.
“The White House is weighing a visit to Saudi Arabia that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates) as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.”
Playbook: “The White House’s thinking here is pretty straightforward. The president has a gargantuan domestic political liability — high gas prices — that Saudi Arabia is in a position to help with. Combine that with the international political realities — MBS is young and will likely lead the kingdom for decades, the West needs new sources of oil given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Saudi Arabia’s role as a regional power — and you have the makings of a rapprochement.”
“But even as the calculation is understandable, there are obvious moral costs to wooing MBS.”
…
Oil prices turned negative on Tuesday after a report that some producers were exploring the idea of suspending Russia’s participation in the OPEC+ production deal.
While there was no formal push for Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to pump more oil to make up for any potential Russian shortfall, some Gulf members had begun planning for an output increase sometime in the next few months, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing OPEC delegates…
…
“The suspension of Russia from OPEC plus could be a precursor to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates utilizing their spare production capacity, because they would feel that they no longer have a production quota agreement that needs to recognize Russia’s interest,” said Andrew Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.
…
However, Russian crude output in April fell by nearly 9% from the previous month, an internal OPEC+ report showed this month. read more..
…
U.S. crude oil production rose in March by more than 3% to 11.7 million bpd, its the highest since November, according to the government. However, output has been slow to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and is still far below its record high of 12.3 million bpd in 2019. read more….
Note…