UK’s Boris Johnson urges Saudi Arabia to raise oil output, minister says
- As Russia’s attack of Ukraine continues, British PM is expected in Saudi Arabia this week to try to persuade it to up output amid higher crude prices
- Saudi Arabia executed 81 men on Saturday; UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid says ‘whether we like it or not, it’s one of world’s largest oil producers’
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to increase its oil output, a senior minister said on Monday, following reports that Johnson would travel to the Opec heavyweight this week.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have so far snubbed US pleas to use their spare output capacity to tame rampant crude prices which threaten a global recession after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Saudi ties with the West are strained over a range of rights issues including the Yemen war and the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
The Times newspaper said Johnson would travel to Saudi Arabia this week to try to persuade it to increase output, citing sources that said he had built good ties with the country’s leadership.
Asked if it was right to seek the support of Saudi Arabia, just days after it executed 81 men, Health Secretary Sajid Javid said Britain had a frank relationship with the country but it was also “important to recognise, whether we like it or not, that Saudi Arabia is one of the world’s largest oil producers”.
“At a time of a major global energy crisis that has been caused by this war in Europe, it is right for the prime minister and other world leaders to engage with Saudi Arabia and try to work together where that makes sense,” he told Times Radio.