拜登对欧佩克国家石油减产表示失望
布雷德迈尔
美国总统乔·拜登（Joe Biden）周四（10月6日）对石油输出国组织（“欧佩克”，OPEC）及其他产油国结成的“欧佩克加”（OPEC+）打算每天将石油产量目标削减200万桶表示失望。但拜登表示美国有其它的选择，并且正在探索这些选择。
“美国有很多选择。我们还没有打定主意，”拜登在白宫告诉记者说，但没有详细说明哪些选择。
“欧佩克”以及俄罗斯等其他产油国周三（10月5日）做出的减产决定可能有助于莫斯科为其正在进行的乌克兰战争提供资金，并损害拜登在下个月的美国国会中期选举之前，进一步降低美国汽油价格的机会。
反对党共和党人正试图在中期选举中从民主党人手中夺回国会参众两院其中之一或者两院的控制权；他们指责拜登和其他民主党人致使美国油价上涨。
在7月份的中东之行时，拜登敦促仅次于美国的世界第二大石油生产国沙特阿拉伯不要减产，甚至提高全球原油市场的产量以遏制油价上升；此举与驾车人在加油站的汽的价格息息相关。
然而，拜登表示，他并不后悔在利雅得停留，与沙特领导人会面。
“这次旅行是关于中东和以色列的，事关立场的合理化，”他说，并同时承认“欧佩克加”的减产“令人失望”。
拜登2020年竞选总统期间，曾将美国的长期盟友沙特阿拉伯称为“贱民国家”，也就是不入世界文明国家之列，但是拜登还是在今年7月访问了沙特。拜登竞选时之所以抨击沙特，是因为沙特政府在2018年持不同政见的记者贾迈勒·卡舒吉（Jamal Khashoggi）被杀害和肢解时所扮演的角色。卡舒吉是《华盛顿邮报》专栏作家，当时他在沙特驻伊斯坦布尔领事馆被特工杀害。
拜登在国会的主要盟友之一、来自伊利诺伊州的联邦参议员迪克·德宾（Dick Durbin）在石油减产后立即对沙特阿拉伯表达了比拜登更加严厉的批评观点。
德宾在推特上写道：“从关于9/11恐怖袭击和贾迈勒·卡舒吉谋杀案的悬而未决的问题，到与普京密谋抬高油价而惩罚美国，沙特王室从来就不是我们国家值得信赖的盟友。现在是时候了，我们外交政策要去想象一个没有沙特加盟的世界。”
德宾所说的“9/11事件”是指2001年“基地”组织对美国的恐怖袭击，袭击造成近3000人死亡。在执行恐怖袭击的19名民航飞机劫机者中，有15人是沙特国民。
众议院的三名民主党议员汤姆·马林诺夫斯基（Tom Malinowski）、肖恩·卡斯滕（Sean Casten）和苏珊·怀尔德（Susan Wild）呼吁结束美国军队对波斯湾盟友的保护。
“如果沙特阿拉伯和阿联酋，想帮助俄罗斯总统普京保持高油价，这两国应该指望普京向其提供保护，”三位议员说。
这三位众议员说，尽管拜登近几个月来对沙特阿拉伯和阿拉伯联合酋长国展现了其外交姿态，但“它们现在已经打了我们一个耳光，将伤害美国消费者并破坏我们的国家利益”。
由23个国家组成的“欧佩克加”联盟表示，从每天4380万桶降至4180万桶的减产将于11月生效。这是“欧佩克加”自2020年3月新冠病毒大流行开始以来，首次削减石油生产目标；不过，“欧佩克加”今年的实际产量比预定目标每天要少300万桶。
石油生产国希望通过减产措施遏制世界原油价格的下跌。今年早些时候，世界原油价格飙升至每桶100美元以上，但在过去四个月中下跌了32%，最近几天又因预计“欧佩克”宣布减产而再次上涨。
随着夏季原油价格的下跌，美国的加油站的油价出现下跌，这提高了对拜登执政表现的支持率。美国将于11月8日举行国会的中期选举。
一年前，美国加油站的平均价格为每加仑3.20美元（1加仑折合3.78升）；在一些州，近几个月来油价已经跌至接近这一价位。但现在，根据美国汽车协会（American Automobile Association）的数据，随着原油价格再次上涨，全国平均油价为每加仑3.87美元。
美国驾车人的荷包受到汽油成本上涨的挤压，而俄罗斯则依赖汽油和石油销售来支撑其预算的相当一大部分，以资助其在乌克兰的战争。俄罗斯支持减产，这将使莫斯科可以在全球市场提高石油售价。
2022年10月5日，沙特阿拉伯能源部长阿卜杜勒阿齐兹·本·萨勒曼·沙特亲王和欧佩克秘书长海瑟姆·盖斯在奥地利维也纳欧佩克总部握手。（路透社照片）
Biden Expresses Disappointment at Planned OPEC Oil Production Cut
Ken Bredemeier
U.S. President Joe Biden expressed his disappointment Thursday that OPEC+ nations intend to cut oil production targets by 2 million barrels a day but said the United States has alternatives and is exploring them.
“There’s a lot of alternatives. We haven’t made up our minds yet,” Biden told reporters at the White House, without elaborating.
Wednesday’s decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, along with Russia and other oil producers, to cut production targets could help Moscow fund its war in Ukraine and hurt Biden’s chances to further cut gasoline prices for American motorists ahead of next month’s nationwide congressional elections.
Opposition Republicans have blamed Biden and fellow Democrats for the higher gas prices as they try to wrest control from Democrats of one or both chambers of Congress.
In a July trip to the Mideast, Biden had pushed Saudi Arabia, the world’s second-biggest oil producer after the U.S., to hold the line against a production cut or even boost output to the global crude oil market to keep oil prices, which directly correlate to the price motorists pay for gasoline at service stations, from increasing.
Biden said, however, that he did not regret his stopover in Riyadh to meet with Saudi leaders.
“The trip was about the Middle East and about Israel and … rationalization of positions,” he said, while acknowledging the OPEC+ production cut “is a disappointment.”
Biden made the trip to Saudi Arabia even though during his presidential campaign in 2020 he branded the longtime U.S. ally as a “pariah” state for its role in the killing and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist, at the hands of Saudi agents in the country’s Istanbul Consulate in 2018.
One of Biden’s key congressional allies, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, voiced a more critical view of Saudi Arabia than Biden in the immediate aftermath of the oil production target cut.
“From unanswered questions about 9/11 & the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, to conspiring w/ Putin to punish the US w/higher oil prices, the royal Saudi family has never been a trustworthy ally of our nation,” Durbin said on Twitter. “It’s time for our foreign policy to imagine a world without their alliance.”
Durbin’s 9/11 reference was to the 2001 al-Qaida terrorist attacks on the U.S. that killed nearly 3,000 people. Fifteen of the 19 airline hijackers who carried out the attacks were Saudi nationals.
Three Democratic members of the House of Representatives, Tom Malinowski, Sean Casten and Susan Wild, called for an end to U.S. troop protection of Persian Gulf allies.
“If Saudi Arabia and the UAE want to help [Russian President Vladimir] Putin keep oil prices high, they should look to him for their defense,” the three lawmakers said.
Despite Biden’s diplomatic overtures in recent months to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, they said, “they have now answered … with a slap in the face that will hurt American consumers and undermine our national interests.”
The OPEC+ coalition of 23 nations said the production cut, from 43.8 million barrels a day to 41.8 million, would take effect in November. It is the first time OPEC has cut oil production targets since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, although the coalition of oil-producing countries has been undershooting its target by 3 million barrels a day this year.
With the production cut, the oil producers are hoping to curb the drop in world crude prices, which surged past $100 a barrel earlier this year but had fallen 32% in the last four months before increasing again in recent days in anticipation of the OPEC announcement.
With the drop in the price of crude over the summer months, gasoline station pump prices fell in the U.S., which in turn boosted Biden’s job approval rating as the country heads to the nationwide congressional elections on November 8.
A year ago in the U.S., gas prices averaged $3.20 a gallon (3.78 liters), and in some states fell to nearly that low in recent months. But now, with crude oil prices rising again, the national average is at $3.87 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association.
While U.S. motorists are pinched by higher gas costs, Russia relies on gas and oil sales for a large portion of its budget to help fund its war in Ukraine. It supported the production cut, which will enable Moscow to sell oil for higher prices on the global market.