U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday welcomed the United Arab Emirates’ move to pull out of OPEC and said he thinks the move could help lower oil prices.
“I think it’s great,” Trump said when asked by reporters at the White House what he thought of the UAE’s decision.
The UAE – one of the group’s biggest producers – said on Tuesday it was quitting OPEC, dealing a blow to the group as an unprecedented energy crisis caused by the Iran war exposes discord among Gulf nations.
“I think ultimately it’s a good thing for getting the price of gas down, getting oil down, getting everything down,” Trump said. “They’re having some problems in OPEC.”
(Reporting by Trevor Hunicutt and Katharine Jackson; Writing by Ryan Patrick Jones and Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Christian Martinez)