Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi met Wednesday with U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) to discuss co-operation between oil producers and consumers to stabilize crude markets.
Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi met Wednesday with U.S. House
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R., Va.) to discuss co-operation between oil
producers and consumers to stabilize crude markets.
The Saudi Oil Ministry said that the visit, the latest by a senior official
from an oil importing nation to the world's largest oil exporting country, also
discussed co-operation in the petroleum and mining sectors.
Saudi oil officials declined to say if Cantor has asked the Kingdom to supply
more oil amid pressure from the
U.S.
, its
key ally, to co-operate in strengthening sanctions over
Iran
's
uranium enrichment program.
Saudi oil officials reiterated Tuesday that
Saudi
Arabia
won't enter other countries'
internal political decisions about whether to ban Iranian crude, after a
Japanese refiner again said it was in talks with
Saudi
Arabia
to replace Iranian oil.
"How many times we have to tell this to either
Japan
or
anyone else?" a Saudi oil official said. "Our trade is commercial not
political. If customers, not countries, ask for more oil we will give it to
them. It is up to them to decide if they want to ban
Iran
oil
or not."
The Saudi official's comments communicated a note of frustration after a top
government panel offered a similar public statement Monday about keeping oil
transactions separate from internal political debates.
U.S.
officials have been pressuring
Japan
,
South
Korea
and other Asian buyers to
reduce or eliminate their purchases of Iranian crude. Tuesday, a spokeswoman
for JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., Japan's largest refiner by capacity, said
it has been in talks with Saudi Arabia and a few other oil producers about
possible purchases in case of a ban on Iranian crude imports.
Yet some buyers from
Japan
and
South
Korea
don't appear to be seeking
extra Saudi barrels because of
Iran
issues just as yet, signaling that they don't expect any immediate problems
with supplies.
A Saudi oil official also said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries would steer clear of the
Iran
controversy.
"OPEC also won't get involved in this issue," the official said.
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