Following news that the Biden administration requested Saudi Arabia delay reducing oil production by one month, Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) has asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA.) to initiate a hearing.
The government of Saudi Arabia announced it would be cutting oil production by 2 million barrels a day — 2 percent of the world’s daily oil production — a move that would likely cause the price of gas in the U.S. to spike ahead of the midterms.
Alongside the announcement, the Saudi Arabia government revealed the U.S. had requested the cut be delayed by one month — enough time to ensure the reduction would only happen after the midterm elections.
In a statement on Thursday (October 13), Saudi Arabia — leader of the OPEC+ conglomerate — noted: “The government of the kingdom clarified through its continuous consultation with the US administration that all economic analysis indicates that postponing the OPEC+ decision by a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences.”
The revelations led Republican lawmakers to suspect the Biden administration was considering the election implications of the Saudi’s plan.
Immediately, the Biden administration pushed back, claiming the Saudis were attempting to “spin and deflect” as the middle eastern nation attempted to assist Russians in the war against Ukraine.
In a statement explaining as much, White House spokesman John Kirby said, “In recent weeks, the Saudis conveyed to us — privately and publicly — their intention to reduce oil production, which they knew would increase Russian revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions. That is the wrong direction.”
Kirby continued, “We presented Saudi Arabia with analysis to show that there was no market basis to cut production targets, and that they could easily wait for the next OPEC meeting to see how things developed. Other OPEC nations communicated to us privately that they also disagreed with the Saudi decision, but felt coerced to support Saudi’s direction.”
Yet, Republicans weren’t satisfied with the statement, claiming Saudi Arabia had made a “very serious allegation,” adding, “One that, if true, may very well constitute an illegal solicitation of a foreign in-kind contribution by the White House on behalf of Democrats’ midterm campaign efforts.”
In his letter, Tiffany asked Pelosi and Democrat chairs “to determine if such calls took place and what specific requests were made regarding Saudi or OPEC+ oil production by Biden administration officials.”
