U.S. President Joe Biden expressed disappointment after major oil producers announced their decision to cut output.
The White House said in a statement that the U.S. Department of Energy will continue to implement a plan to release a total of 180 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves and release another 10 million barrels of strategic petroleum reserves to the market next month.
According to a report by CNN on the 5th, the U.S. government has been pressuring the governments of major oil-producing countries to dissuade them from cutting production.
But the reality is that such efforts have failed.
Citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, the report said that over the past few weeks, the Biden administration has launched a "comprehensive pressure operation", sending a group of senior energy, economic and foreign policy officials with Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates have reached out to lobby them to vote against production cuts.
In draft talking points distributed by the White House to the U.S. Treasury Department, obtained by CNN, the officials were asked to inform Middle Eastern producers that production cuts would lead to "serious disasters" and even be considered "hostile acts."
The report said Amos Hochstein, a senior energy security adviser to the U.S. State Department, played a leading role.
Late last month, he traveled to the Saudi port city of Jeddah with the National Security Council's Middle East and North Africa coordinator, Brett McGurk, and the U.S. special envoy for Yemen, Tim Lundkin, to discuss a range of energy and security issues.
At the same time, the White House also asked Treasury Secretary Yellen to personally explain the situation to the finance ministers of the Gulf countries, including Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
According to the report, the White House draft talking points suggested that Yellen convey to other countries' finance ministers: "If you continue to cut production, your reputation and relationship in the eyes of the United States and the West will be at great political risk."
US media: US-Saudi relations take another step further
However, such efforts have had little effect.
The US "New York Times" published an article on the 5th that the decision of the major oil-producing countries exposed the failure of US diplomacy.
The article specifically pointed out that in July this year, US President Biden went to Saudi Arabia to increase oil production, but Saudi Arabia ignored the pressure of the United States and supported the reduction of oil production, which marked a further step in the strategic relationship between the two countries.
Agence France-Presse commented that the United States said it was "disappointed" with the decision to cut production, but it was obviously not just "disappointment", which was a major blow to the Biden administration's efforts to stabilize oil prices before the mid-term elections.