Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg

[M027-02] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:00:40 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, on a lighter note: you used to adjective muscle stretching and bombshell, and actually yesterday was a graceful day for us, because we are actually extending support and help to the industry as opposed to being an aggressor.

[M027-04] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:01:12 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

No, when we talk about OPEC, when we talk about production, we talk about a production, which encompasses everything, so it is our sales to domestic market and also exports, so the contentment will come from our sales, which is encompassed both: the domestic and the international sales.

[M027-06] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:01:39 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

In terms of the impacting on the market, it will be a solid, I would say a million plus our contribution of the 425000, that the others had agreed to continue, not to bring to the market both, in the month of February and the additional 425000 that was supposed to be brought into the market in the month of March.

[M027-08] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:02:18 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, what we have said last night is that this voluntary cut will be for two months: the months of February and March, and as it is today, like what we did in June we had a voluntary cut with our friends: UAE and Kuwait, and we stick to what we have said in the original voluntary cut.

[M027-10] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:03:06 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, we are at lost, you know, first of all, this is not a decision of the government, Aramco as a company is commissioned to, based on its concession terms and conditions, which are a typical concession terms as an Exxon as Chevron as BP as Shell, they are supposed to sell their crudes enumerate the government for the sales of this crude, based on trying to maximize their sales price, and they usually go where the market would give them higher netback. As a result, of the transformative nature of went to the U.S. markets and the U.S. production, obviously, that gradual phase-out had taken place.

[M027-11] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:04:03 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Keep in mind that, in March and April we were selling a lot of barrels, while set in the month of December, we were selling roughly around 9 million barrels, so our exports had decreased, while also production of the U.S. had somewhat improved or stabilized, and there are other selling to the U.S. market which selling to the U.S. would give them a better netback than having to sell somewhere else, so it is a purely commercial rather than a political choice or a directed by political aspiration or objectives.

[M027-13] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:05:21 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, it is not the U-turn; it is the same maintain of the same course, because the same thing could have been said about us and what we did with Kuwait and UAE in June, this time around as I was saying in the Press conference that we did not even consult with anybody, we felt that our partners in OPEC for all sorts of reasons, have underwent a very hard and rough experience, so that the entire industry, and asking them for additional cut or restrictions, is going to be too excruciating for all of them. So, we opted to take that option, which is a simple, easy option, we know for certainly that we can do it, and as you have just said, it will be confined to a two-month period, which I believe, is done for a good purpose too.

[M027-14] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:06:16 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

We still have some stocks to withdraw, we moved people, and I am glad we were successful two days ago to move people towards accepting that the inventory range should change to one that is more realistic, which is 2015-2019, if you look at what I call the corridor between the two, we are still not in the anywhere near the average and for us to move with this plus convincing the other, keep in mind, that others are going to be cutting, because they were and anticipating an increase in February.

[M027-16] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:07:20 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

No, I think the idea of bringing 23 countries together, and you will assume that everybody is going to line up, based on the emphasis, or the direction, or the analysis of one country, is, I think, detrimental to any gathering of this nature. We drove a consensus approach, and we continue to drive it as basic, keep in mind, when we first meet in Abu Dhabi, I think were there with me, where I said: you know, I will give due respect, and due importance to the smallest producer within OPEC Plus equal importance to the biggest producer within OPEC Plus, because without which, I do not think we will have that continuity of gathering, people would differ, yes and but we differ, and we will be accommodating, that is why you saw the result of the meeting yesterday, there are those who decided, to continue the pace and never not to increase, there are those who have asked for an incremental increase to attend to a particular situation for them, which is in the winter months and there is Saudi Arabia, which came up with this incredible gesture of goodwill.

[M027-18] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:09:03 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I am not sure if it is a shock, it is a shock for the speculators and good luck, and I think they are having a nice time to reconsider what they have been doing to the market, but do not deny me the organized Saudi Arabia, the right to say you know we give our industry a wonderful present and a wonderful surprise.

[M027-20] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:10:03 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

Well, you know our schedulers did not meet to make sure that these two dates coincide with each other, but if it is, then indeed it is a good Tuesday. But trust me there was nothing in any way that was engineered if I could call it to meet a target or an expectation of as such.

[M027-22] · سمو وزير الطاقة (HRH the Minister of Energy) · التوقيت 00:10:40 · Interview with Ann Marie - Bloomberg · 2021-01-06 · مشاهدة عند هذا التوقيت

I failed to see any correlation between the two events you know the OPEC meeting and GCC, we have always been cordial and congenial with any U.S. administration, past, present and the future. And I have been saying that for quite a long at least from our energy perspective that we have worked with so many administrations, personally I did, so many secretaries at both parts of the political parties, and we have always found a great deal of common agenda and common interests and common activities that we can do in this forthcoming administration, I certainly would have a lot to work within terms of renewable Energy, (CCE) circular carbon economy, the climate change and also efficiency, I could sit here and enumerate 30/40 different activities that we could work on with the U.S, based on the forthcoming administration agenda.