A report by the Wall Street Journal published on Saturday, spoke of tension between Saudi Arabia and Russia, due to the latter’s cuts in oil prices.
Informed sources told the Wall Street Journal that tensions are escalating between Saudi Arabia and Russia, as Moscow continues to pump huge quantities of cheaper crude into the market, undermining Riyadh’s efforts to boost energy prices globally.
The sources also confirmed that Saudi Arabia expressed its anger at Russia for not fully complying with its pledge to cut production.
The sources said that Saudi officials complained to senior Russian officials, asking them to respect the agreed cuts.
The news of this dispute comes amid an improvement in relations between the two countries in recent years, especially on energy levels and a number of political issues, most notably Riyadh’s position on the war in Ukraine, which remained below the level that Washington had hoped from Riyadh.
Russian official media had confirmed, a few days ago, that a senior Russian official, who faces US and Western sanctions, visited Saudi Arabia and held talks with his counterpart last Tuesday.
The visit of the Russian Interior Minister, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, to Riyadh came a few days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a speech to the Arab League summit, which was held in Jeddah last week.
The Saudi Press Agency stated that Kolokoltsev met with the Saudi Minister of Interior, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud, and that during the session, they discussed ways to enhance security cooperation paths between the two countries’ ministries of interior, in addition to discussing a number of issues of common concern.
In a related context, the Bloomberg published a report on Friday, entitled “Saudi Arabia acquires Russian diesel and sends it to Europe.”
The report stated that, as an unintended consequence of Western sanctions on Moscow, Saudi Arabia today buys record quantities of Russian diesel at low prices, and then exports them to the European Union at higher prices.
This year, Saudi Arabia replaced Russia as the largest supplier of diesel to Europe, overtaking Russia since last February, and even overtaking the United States as the second largest exporter in the world, according to Bloomberg.
China’s imports of crude oil from Russia increased by 8.6% in April on an annual basis, as larger private refiners began buying discounted oil.
Total imports from Russia, including seaborne shipments and pipeline supplies, were 7.1 million tons, or 1.73 million barrels per day.
Large private refiners have joined smaller independent refiners in the rush for low-priced Russian oil, whether East Siberian-Pacific blend crude loaded from Russia’s Far East, or Urals crude shipped through European ports.
A detailed report on the “Gepolitical Economy” website, by Ben Norton, confirmed that the European Union, which imposed sanctions on Russia and boycotted its oil, is still buying it indirectly from India at a higher price, which leads to fueling the decline in dollarization and inflation in the Euro area.
The real wages for workers fell by 6.5% from 2020 to 2022.
