While much of the blame for the failed Doha agreement (which impacted the price of oil for about 12 hours before another squeeze pushed both Brent and WTI back to unchanged for the day), a new allegations has emerged, this time from the Venezuela oil minister Del Pino who, after saying that he is disappointed with the Doha results (but why - oil is basically unchanged) accused none other than the US for sabotaging the Doha deal, saying that the US acted to block the Doha oil production freeze accord.
- U.S. ACTED TO BLOCK DOHA OIL PRODUCTION FREEZE ACCORD: DEL PINO
Perhaps this is just more populist rhetoric; however it is curious that as many noted on Saturday, a tentative deal was effectively concluded, and only a last minute breakdown due to a spike in tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia led to the failure of the deal. Did the State Department have anything to do with that, and if so why would Saudi Arabia cave to US pressure now that US - Saudi relations appears increasingly stretched, and with Saudi Arabia threatening the US should Obama seek to find the culprit behind Sept 11.
In addition to this surprising allegation, the Venezuela minister who just spoke to reported in Moscow, said that Saudi Arabia tried to use Doha meeting to pressure Iran, adding that Saudi representatives in yesterday's meeting didn’t have authority to negotiate (so if not they, then who?)
He also said that he sees Venezuela sees Iran’s position as "logical", and said that "we are going to try to recover the trust."
Finally, when asked if non-OPEC producers will come to June OPEC meetings, he said that "first, we need to work inside OPEC."