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Biden administration urged Saudi Arabia to wait until after the midterms to cut oil production - and warned rejecting the offer would be a clear sign of siding with Russia, report claims

US officials asked Saudi and other Gulf producers to stall production cuts

The cuts, announced early this month, led to spate of headlines
Although they take effect in November, delay would have put off further
NSC spokeswoman called it ‘categorically false to connect this to U.S. elections’
Saudi officials viewed the request ‘as a political gambit’
White House spokesman John Kirby said Biden is reconsidering his Saudi stance
Added that the president is willing to work with Congress on future of relations
Top Democrats have called for a freeze on arm sales after the OPEC decision
Senator Dick Durbin said Saudi Arabia wants Russia to win the war in Ukraine
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a veiled swipe at Biden as he said the U.S. should pump more oil and gas and should have been doing so for a long time
By GEOFF EARLE, DEPUTY U.S. POLITICAL EDITOR and MORGAN PHILLIPS, POLITICS REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and REUTERS

PUBLISHED: 18:23 EDT, 11 October 2022 | UPDATED: 19:10 EDT, 11 October 2022

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The Biden administration weighed in with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ members urging them to hold off for another month before announcing oil production cuts – a move that would have delayed the stunning announcement until after the mid-term elections.

The administration framed its objections to the production cuts as boosting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brutal war in Ukraine.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, the Saudis rejected the admonitions, viewing the administration’s objections as a ‘political gambit by the Biden administration to avoid bad news.’

The administration also raised the issue with other Gulf producers, according to the report.

The cartel, which controls about 30 per cent of the world’s oil supply, went ahead with the production cuts – which have the effect of maintaining high prices that help Putin continue to fund his war, while also delivering a spate of bad news headlines for Biden.

Gas prices and inflation are a top election issue, and Biden has called taming inflation his top priority.

The White House urged Saudia Arabia and Gulf allies to delay production cuts by a month, according to a new report. President Joe Biden is re-evaluating the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ announced last week it would cut oil production, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday. Here Biden fist-bumps Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman in Jeddah in July
The White House urged Saudia Arabia and Gulf allies to delay production cuts by a month, according to a new report. President Joe Biden is re-evaluating the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia after OPEC+ announced last week it would cut oil production, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday. Here Biden fist-bumps Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman in Jeddah in July

The look was compounded by Biden’s decision this summer to visit Saudi Arabia, and even give a fist-bump to Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

The White House pushed back on the claim of arguments geared to November, which the paper attributed to people familiar with the talks.

‘It’s categorically false to connect this to U.S. elections,’ said National Security Council Spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said. ‘It’s about the impact of this shortsighted decision to the global economy.’

According to Watson, U.S. officials took issue with how the Saudis were analyzing the oil market and anticipating a price drop, urging a pause to gauge market conditions.

At the White House, spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre continued to focus on the impact on the war in Ukraine, after Russia lobbed a barrage of missiles at civilian areas and infrastructure.

‘We believe by the decision that OPEC+ made last week, they’re certainly aligning themselves with Russia and right now this is not a time to be aligning with Russia, especially this brutal, unprecedented war that they have started in Ukraine and we’ve been very clear about that,’ she said.

The report comes amid increased signals that President Biden is considering getting tough on Saudi Arabia by re-evaluating the relationship with the kingdom after OPEC+ slashed oil production last week.

‘This is a relationship that we need to continue to reevaluate, that we need to be willing to revisit,’ White House national security spokesman John Kirby said on CNN Tuesday.

Biden is willing to work with Congress on the future of Saudi relations, Kirby added in an interview with CNN, after Democratic Senator Bob Menendez called for a freeze on cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including most arms sales.

Cutting oil production in the Middle East by two million barrels a day is sure to push gas prices even higher - just one month before midterm elections - and has led to claims Saudi Arabia is ‘aligned’ with Russia.

For months, since the U.S. cut off exports of Russian oil and the European Union moved toward divestment, Moscow has instead been selling its product to Saudi Arabia. The Saudis keep Russian oil for their own use and then sell theirs on the world market.

The Democrats have now vowed to get tough on the kingdom for the production cut, after Biden fist-bumped Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman in Jeddah in July.

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin also accused Saudi Arabia of wanting to Russia to win the war in Ukraine.

‘Do you think Saudi Arabia wants Russia to win in Ukraine?’ CNN’s John Berman asked him.

‘Yes…let’s be very candid about this. It’s Putin and Saudi Arabia against the United States,’ he responded.

Kirby reiterated his remarks in a press briefing later on.

‘The president believes that we should review the bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia and to take take a look to see if that relationship is where it needs to be and and that it is serving our national security interests and he is willing to discuss this relationship with members of Congress,’ he said.

Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has veto power over foreign arms sales, said in a statement that he ‘will not green light any cooperation with Riyadh until the Kingdom reassesses its position with respect to the war in Ukraine.’

Last week Durbin, the Senate’s no. 2 Democrat, wrote in a tweet Saudi Arabia has ‘never been a trustworthy ally’ and it’s time for the U.S. to ‘imagine a world without their alliance.’

Energy ministers from the OPEC cartel, whose leading member is Saudi Arabia, and allied non-members including Russia met in person at the group’s Vienna headquarters last week for the first time since early 2020.

Their announced production cutback on Tuesday is the largest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Just this summer Biden made a trip to the Middle East and met with crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman to discuss energy security and soaring gas prices in the U.S. To avoid a problematic handshake with the leader Biden fist bumped bin Salman.

Last week’s announcement will boost Russian oil prices to bankroll the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. It also thwarts the West’s efforts to choke off Moscow’s energy dollars.

JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a veiled swipe at Biden as he said the U.S. should pump more oil and gas and should have been doing so for a long time.

White House’s John Kirby tells @brikeilarcnn “the timeline is now” for working with Congress to re-evaluate the US-Saudi relationship. “I think [President Biden] is going to be willing to start to have those conversations right away.” pic.twitter.com/oOvqSwZj4d

— New Day (@NewDay) October 11, 2022
‘In my view, America should have been pumping more oil and gas and it should have been supported,’ the famed billionaire chairman told CNBC on Monday.

‘America needs to play a real leadership role. America is the swing producer, not Saudi Arabia. We should have gotten that right starting in March,’ he added.

Dimon said the issue needs to be treated with the urgency of a national security matter. ‘I would put it in the critical category. This should be treated almost as a matter of war at this point, nothing short of that,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut called for new legislation to ‘immediately halt all U.S. arms sales’ to the Middle Eastern kingdom, which leads OPEC+, in a joint editorial published in