Saudi Arabia Imports Oil From Russia As Crown Prince Agrees To Increase Oil Production

As Saudi Arabia agrees to the United States’ demand to increase their daily oil production after a visit from U.S. President Joe Biden, a report reveals on Saturday that the Kingdom has increased their importation of Russian oil despite sanctions against it by the West.

U.S. President Joe Biden personally went to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to ask Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to increase the Kingdom’s oil production amidst escalating oil prices in the United States due to Western sanctions against Russian oil, according to Reuters.

Salman reportedly agreed to increase daily production of oil by 4 million barrels, putting the daily oil produced by the Kingdom to 13 million barrels. However, Salman claims that there would not be any increases in the future due to reaching the capacity point of their plants.

“Adopting unrealistic policies to reduce emissions by excluding main sources of energy will lead in coming years to unprecedented inflation and an increase in energy prices, and rising unemployment and a worsening of serious social and security problems,” the Crown Prince said.

Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia to meet with OPEC countries in an attempt to increase oil production has been controversial largely for the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Biden had previously promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah state” for the crime, but has since asserted that Prince bin Salman denied responsibility for the killing, Business Insider reported.

In spite of, or possibly due to the promises of the Kingdom to increase oil production, a report on Saturday shows that Saudi Arabia has increased its importation of sanctioned Russian oil in an attempt to free up its own oil for importation by using the imported oil to power their grid, another Business Insider article reported.

The imported oil reportedly increase to 647,000 tons, equating to an increase of more than 300,000 barrels of oil imported from Russia to Saudi Arabia. The power grid’s dependence on oil, especially during the summer, reportedly pushes close to 600,000 barrels a day, especially in large cities far from the natural oil fields.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has reportedly been using the freed-up oil from their country to sell on the market today, as prices per barrel hover around $100 and below worldwide.