Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman reiterated on Tuesday the Kingdom's ability to ensure energy security is no longer guaranteed and said the markets are going through a "jittery period". Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, Prince Abdulaziz said cross-border terrorist attacks carried out by the Iranian-backed Houthi militias have put to question "our ability to supply the world with the necessary energy requirements." "It goes without saying that if this security supply is impacted, it will impact us ... but more fundamentally, I think it also will affect the world economy," he said. Prince Abdulaziz said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates could once rely on a collective effort to ensure their energy security. "These pillars are no longer there," he added. Oil prices, already at their highest in years, have shot up further amid the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, OPEC's largest oil producer. Brent crude prices are trading above $110 a barrel, though have soared at times past $120. On Friday, the Houthis hit a Saudi oil products storage facility in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, sending huge plumes of black smoke into the air that were visible from the vicinity of the Formula One race where practice laps were underway. Saudi Arabia has expressed its frustrations in official statements, saying it will not bear any responsibility for shortages in oil supplies due to the attacks. Crude oil prices have also been buoyed by a deal struck by leading producers, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, in an alliance known as OPEC+, which limited oil production to keep prices from crashing amid pandemic lockdowns in 2020. The group has stuck to its cautious plan of releasing more barrels on a monthly basis as COVID-19 restrictions have eased. Critics of the plan say the Russian war in Ukraine is roiling markets and sending energy prices soaring for consumers at the pump. The United States, European nations and Japan have either called on Gulf Arab producers with spare capacity to pump more oil or, at a minimum, suggested they should. "What we are asking for (is) not to tell us 'do this and do that'. We are experts in our field and we have been doing it for a very long time," UAE energy minister, Suhail al-Mazrouei, said at the summit. Al-Mazrouei doubled down on the OPEC+ alliance a day earlier in remarks at an energy forum in Dubai. Again on Tuesday, he and the Saudi energy minister stressed the importance of Russia's roughly 10 million barrels a day in crude output, saying it amounts to almost 10% of global oil demand. They insisted that politics — in reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine — should be separated from energy policy. "We are not taking a side today," the Emirati minister said. The aim of OPEC+, he said, is stabilizing the market. "We have developed and delivered our side of the story," Prince Abdulaziz said, referring to the Kingdom's position on the link between its national security and global energy market stability. "People, others, need to deliver their own side of the commitment," he added. "Otherwise, the very pillar of energy security will be disturbed, to say the least." This year, the World Government Summit is being held on the premises of Dubai Expo 2020, the six-month-long world's fair that concludes later this week. — Agencies
