Saudi Arabia remains committed to achieving stability in the oil market and reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining supply cuts for the next two years with Russia, the Kingdom’s state news agency SPA said in a Tweet Tuesday.
The announcement came following a remarkable day for oil, with US WTI crude futures trading negative for the first time in history as market technicalities and localized storage issues in the US market led to producers paying buyers to take oil off their hands.
“[The Saudi Arabian Council of Ministers] also affirms [the Kingdom’s] continued monitoring of market conditions and its willingness to take any additional measures in partnership with members of OPEC+ and other producers,” the statement read.
Some experts had previously commented that WTI’s volatility could spread to the rest of the oil market and is a warning signal for the industry.
Brent futures briefly fell below the $20 per barrel mark on Tuesday for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Saudi Arabia and Russia, two of the largest oil producers in the world, both said Sunday they are open to further output cuts to stem crude’s downward spiral.
The world’s top oil producers pulled together a historic deal last week that should remove about 20 percent of current oil production for two months from world markets to face up to the evaporation of global demand.
Meanwhile, the US has yet to mandate cuts for its oil industry. The Texas oil and gas regulator is due to decide Tuesday if it will mandate supply cuts, the state accounts for 40 percent of US production.