Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, asked if the kingdom and Russia would step in to replace any potential loss of Iranian oil, said on Thursday that the country will “only react to realities”.
The prince, speaking at an economic forum in St Petersburg, added that OPEC+ has been a reliable organisation that was attentive to circumstances when they prevailed, declining to comment on hypothetical questions.
Oil prices have risen more than $10 over the past week on Middle East escalations after Israel attacked Iran last week.
While the two foes have targeted energy infrastructure in each other’s countries, a disruption to Middle Eastern oil exports or production has yet to happen.
The U.S. is weighing a direct involvement in the conflict, an option which analysts say would raise the risk premium to oil prices even higher, increasing the chances of disruptions to energy supplies.
Iran is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, but is exempt from production cuts that the group along with other allies including Russia have in place.
OPEC+, as the alliance is known, was in the process of increasing production targets for eight of its members before Israel’s attack on Iran last week.
The group of eight which includes Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Algeria and Kazakhstan will meet next on July 6 to decide on whether to increase production further from August.
At their last meeting, Russia favoured pausing an output hike of 411,000 bpd for July, but eventually agreed for the hike to go ahead.
(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, Vladimir Soldatkin and Olesya Astakhova; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Louise Heavens)