White House energy adviser says there is ‘room’ for OPEC to increase oil production

The White House’s senior adviser for energy security on Sunday said there is room for global oil-producing alliance OPEC to increase production.

Amos Hochstein said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he was “pretty confident” in upcoming negotiations with OPEC to increase global oil supply.

“I’m not going to go in to how much spare capacity there is,” Hochstein said. “But there is additional spare capacity, there is room for increased production … I believe that there is still more room.”

On Sunday, President Biden returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader. Biden did not return with an immediate promise on increased oil production to help bring down gas prices at home, but he announced he was optimistic that discussions in the coming weeks will yield results.

Biden’s meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was widely criticized after the president was seen fist bumping the crown prince, who U.S. intelligence concluded was involved in the 2018 slaying of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Some members of Biden’s own party took issue with his visit to the kingdom, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) concluding that it appeared to have rewarded a dictatorship.

Hochstein told CBS that Biden secured a commitment from Saudi Arabia to extend a cease-fire in neighboring Yemen, which has been beset by a civil war since 2014.

The energy adviser also said he was confident that domestic oil production would increase in the coming months as the White House’s release of 1 million barrels a day from a strategic reserve comes to a close toward the end of the year.

“My expectation is that the private sector in the U.S. will have those increases coming so we don’t need to have the emergency from the U.S. government,” Hochstein said.