WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden expressed disappointment on Thursday over announced plans by OPEC+ nations to cut oil output and said the United States was looking at its alternatives.
Despite that decision, Biden said he did not regret his summer trip to Saudi Arabia, which he said was focused on the Middle East.
OPEC+ agreed to steep oil production cuts on Wednesday, curbing supply in an already tight market and raising the possibility of higher gasoline prices right before the U.S. midterm elections in November, when Biden’s Democrats are defending their control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“We’re looking at what alternatives we may have,” Biden told reporters at the White House when asked about the OPEC decision.
“There’s a lot of alternatives. We haven’t made up our minds yet,” he said.
Asked if he regretted his decision to go to Saudi Arabia, Biden said that trip was not essentially about oil.
“The trip was about the Middle East and about Israel and … rationalization of positions,” he said. “But it is a disappointment,” he added of the OPEC+ decision, and indicates problems.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; writing by Tim Ahmann; editing by Doina Chiacu and Bill Berkrot)
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