NYT: Some Saudis say kingdom needs to cut production

The New York Times has an instructive story about the tenuous situation Saudi Arabia is in as oil-producing nations deal with the sudden, precipitous drop in global crude prices. The kingdom so far seems to be willing to ride out the price drop. But other influencers inside and outside the country say it needs to cut production to prop up prices.

“This week, the billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal released an open letter to the Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, criticizing him for saying that lower oil prices were no cause for alarm,” the story says. “In the letter, Prince Alwaleed called the price drop a ‘catastrophe that cannot go unmentioned’ and suggested it could harm the kingdom’s budget.”

(Photo: Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi. Credit: Shutterstock)