FACT BRIEF

Is Saudi Arabia contributing to rising oil prices?

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

By Lisa Freedland

Copy link

Copy featured image

YES

Saudi Arabia, the world's second largest oil producer behind the U.S., is refusing, along with the rest of OPEC, to increase oil production, contributing to ongoing supply, and by extension, price pressures.

Pandemic-related supply-chain disruptions, rebounding post-lockdown demand and the oil embargo imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine have driven the oil-price spike.

Saudi Arabia has indicated it will not help ease these pressures, declining to arrange calls with President Biden. U.S.-Saudi relations are strained due to the revival of the Iran nuclear deal, U.S. withdrawal of support for the Saudi intervention in Yemen’s civil war and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Relations were better under Trump, who persuaded Saudi Arabia to increase production in 2018.

Saudi Arabia "won't bear any responsibility" for the shortages, citing production capacity issues due to a Houthi attack on its oil infrastructure.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

US Energy Information Administration What countries are the top producers and consumers of oil?

Fortune OPEC+ refuses to up its oil output as prices tick higher

USA Today Fact check: Rising gas prices due to high demand and low supply, not Biden's policies

World Economic Forum How does the war in Ukraine affect oil prices?

Guardian Saudi Arabia and UAE leaders ‘decline calls with Biden’ amid fears of oil price spike

CNBC Trump, Saudi king agree to production boost to battle rising oil prices, and offset Venezuela, Iran supply woes

CBS News Saudi Arabia says it's not responsible for high oil prices

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

FACT BRIEF BY

Latest fact briefs

About fact briefs published on Gigafact

Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.