Joe Biden will on Friday embark on his first visit as US president to Saudi Arabia, where he is expected to persuade Riyadh to pump more oil to bring down prices that are fuelling inflation to the highest levels in decades.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that just a few months before his election, Biden had pledged that Saudi should be a ‘pariah’ state following the 2018 murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in a recalibration of relations with the oil-producing country that is a presently kingpin of the OPEC oil cartel.
Oil prices, however, have recently reached levels last seen during the global financial crisis of 2008 as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a major supplier of crude.
That pushed US inflation to the highest rate in more than four decades — and this could yet persuade Biden to set aside human rights concerns before key US midterm elections in November, experts say.
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“It highlights his desperation ahead of the midterms to at least be seen to be trying to alleviate the tightness in the market and bring prices back down,” OANDA analyst Craig Erlam told AFP.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
Biden’s chances could be boosted by the looming expiry of a crucial deal among the wider so-called OPEC+ group to boost oil production.
Africa Today New York reports that OPEC+ comprises the 13-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries led by Saudi Arabia and its 10 partners headed by Russia.
The group had previously slashed output in 2020, when demand was decimated by Covid pandemic lockdowns worldwide.
But since last year, countries have been gradually reopening the taps as economies rebound.
Last month, OPEC+ stuck to a previously agreed output hike, shrugging off calls for bigger increases to tame elevated prices.
The deal will soon run its course once OPEC+ returns to pre-pandemic production after August.
‘The expiration of the OPEC+ deal in September does create an opportunity and perhaps (Biden) would not be making such a move if he had not been assured that something is possible,’ said Erlam.
The grouping will hold its next production gathering in August.
Yet Biden’s hopes for more oil could be dashed because elevated crude prices, despite recent losses, have energised state revenues and economies across the Middle East.