Saudi Arabia’s oil fears look well funded: Julian Lee

It’s starting to look like Saudi Arabia’s concerns over the oil demand recovery were well founded.
At the start of the month, the joint leader of the OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries announced a surprise output cut of 1 million barrels a day for February and March. Its co-chair, Russia, pushing for restraints to be eased, was granted a small output increase in each of those two months.

When Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman made the unilateral decision to cut output — keeping the idea from fellow OPEC+ members to prevent leaks — he pinned it on fears that the recovery in oil demand was not as strong as it appeared. That appears to have been wise.