Oil producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia signaled on Sunday that they did not see any rush to increase output, despite pressure from President Trump to pump more oil and hold down prices.
Meeting in Algiers, officials from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied governments, including Russia, said that after having increased production in recent months, customers now have adequate supplies. “Since June, Saudi Arabia has met the demand for every barrel that has been requested,” the Saudi oil minister, Khalid al-Falih, said at a news conference after the meeting.
The Saudis and their allies appear to be trying to walk a fine line between accommodating Mr. Trump and not putting so much oil into the market that prices crash — as they did in 2014, damaging their petroleum-dependent economies. “They are trying to assuage Trump while keeping internal OPEC division from blowing up in the open,” said Antoine Halff, a founding partner of Kayrros, a research firm based in Paris.
With oil prices recently hovering at around $80 a barrel for Brent crude, Mr. Trump has used Twitter and other means to lean on OPEC to increase oil supplies. His messages have mainly been directed at Saudi Arabia, the largest OPEC producer. Last week, Mr. Trump renewed his pressure. “We protect the countries of the Middle East, they would not be safe for very long without us, and yet they continue to push for higher and higher oil prices!” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “The OPEC monopoly must get prices down now!”