President Joe Biden and his administration worked extensively to work out a secret deal with Saudi Arabia to ease oil and gas prices right before the midterm elections, even though the Saudis ultimately backtracked.
Biden officials scrambled to convince the Saudis not to cut oil production before the midterm elections and thought they had succeeded once Biden agreed to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Biden officials pushed for the Saudis to accelerate production in July and August and additional increases from September to December, which would significantly impact oil production ahead of the midterms.
Details of the deal were revealed by the New York Times:
First, the Saudis would accelerate an OPEC Plus production increase of 400,000 barrels per day already planned for September, moving it to July and August. Then the Saudis would get the cartel to announce a further production increase of 200,000 barrels per day for each month from September to December of this year.
On June 2, OPEC Plus announced they would move up the production increase scheduled for September — fulfilling the first part of the secret deal.
U.S. President Joe Biden (L) being welcomed by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) at Alsalam Royal Palace in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on July 15, 2022. (Royal Court of Saudi Arabia / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Team Biden soothed concerns from furious Democrats with details of the oil deal, the Times reports, after the White House would meet with the Saudis despite Biden promising to treat them as a “pariah” during his campaign.
Although Biden and the White House repeatedly said his trip to Saudi Arabia was not about the price of oil, details of the deal reveal how much of a priority it actually was to the administration.
But the deal that Biden and his team constructed blew up in their face.
Leaders from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have reportedly refused to take phone calls from President Joe Biden during the Ukraine crisis, after he snubbed them repeatedly during the first year of his administration. https://t.co/rWIOz8qySr
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) March 9, 2022
OPEC+ announced only a boost of 100,000 barrels a day in August, and in September they announced they would cut production by 100,000 barrels.
In October, OPEC+ shocked Biden officials after they announced they would actually cut production by two million gallons a day instead of increasing production.
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