Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih said in a tweet he had discussed the state of the oil market with U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Monday in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Fox Business informed.
The meeting took place after OPEC and non-OPEC oil exporting countries rejected pressure from President Donald Trump to further reduce oil prices by refraining from cutting production.
Perry tweeted that he discussed the need for “open, free, and fair markets with the Saudis,” Arabian Business added.
OPEC members and 10 other oil producing nations, including Russia, on Friday agreed to cut output by 1.2 million barrels a day from January in a bid to reverse recent falls in prices.
The decision came even as President Donald Trump demanded that the cartel boost output in order to push prices down. However, Trump insists that he will stick by Riyadh despite the recent diplomatic outrage, but he has also been ramping up the pressure for more oil.
But Falih shrugged off the pressure last week, saying “we don’t need permission from anyone to cut” production. The U.S. “is not in a position to tell us what to do,” he told reporters ahead of Friday’s OPEC meeting in Vienna.
Last week, for the first time in decades, the United States, which is not a member of OPEC, was a net exporter of crude oil and petroleum products.
It was the latest sign of how the shale boom has lifted the U.S. standing on global petroleum markets, prompting talk of “energy dominance” by Trump.
Perry’s visit to Dhahran came as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled state oil giant Aramco’s plan for a new energy megaproject in the area known as the King Salman Energy Park.
The energy park is expected to attract an initial investment of $1.6 billion, Aramco said.
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