British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will travel to Saudi Arabia this week to encourage the OPEC heavyweight to increase its oil output.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have so far continued to snub pleas from the United States and President Joe Biden to use their spare output capacity to calm down escalating crude prices, threatening a global recession.
The cost of oil has jumped since Russia first invaded Ukraine, a pain felt across Europe and North America. Hopes that diplomatic efforts would end the war led to oil prices shedding as much as $4 a barrel this morning. But with talks stalling once again, oil prices are expected to rise, not fall. In the United Kingdom, fuel prices at the pumps have reached record highs.
Johnson has reportedly made strong ties with Saudi Arabia’s leaders, and believes these relationships will help him as he travels to the country to persuade them to increase oil output.
Some government insiders claim that Johnson has better relationships with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman than any other G7 leader. The pair allegedly have even messaged over WhatsApp.
Biden has also tried to communicate with the leader, but it has been reported that the prince refused to take the call. British lawmakers believe that Johnson can broker the deal following the phone call snub to Biden, and be able to ease the energy crisis.
The trip is “not finalized” according to Downing Street, but sources close to the matter say he’ll be on his way this week.
It comes after Johnson spoke about moving Britain away from “dependence on Russian oil and gas.” A couple of days ago, Johnson said that the UK is going to look at its energy supply and take dramatic steps in order to have independent energy supplies. He said an independent energy supply is necessary so that the UK is no longer capable of being “blackmailed by Putin.”
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