OIL . . FYI Defiant Saudi Arabia describes current oil price level as “unreasonable”.
Khalid al-Falih, chairman of state oil firm Saudi Aramco, lamented that the collapse in oil prices to below $30 a barrel as “irrational” in remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, adding that “the market has overshot on the low side and it is inevitable that it will start turning up.”
Regarding its perceived role as a swing producer, he said that “Saudi Arabia has never advocated that it would take the sole role of balancing market against structural imbalance.”
Striking a more defiant tone, al-Falih warned that his nation, the world’s second biggest oil producer, is “not going to accept to withdraw our production to make space for others,” while stressing that “if the prices continue to be low, we will able to withstand it for a long, long time.”