Here’s what we learned in April:
Prince Bandar enjoys easy access to the Oval Office. His family and the Bush family are close. And Woodward told 60 Minutes that Bandar has promised the president that Saudi Arabia will lower oil prices in the months before the election — to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day.
Woodward says that Bandar understood that economic conditions were key before a presidential election: “They’re [oil prices] high. And they could go down very quickly. That’s the Saudi pledge. Certainly over the summer, or as we get closer to the election, they could increase production several million barrels a day and the price would drop significantly.”
And, as my friend David S. reminded me, here’s what we learned yesterday:
OPEC is trying to prevent world oil prices rising further by pumping well beyond official output limits but is close to full capacity, cartel Secretary General Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Thursday.
“OPEC is currently producing some 2 million barrels per day above the agreed ceiling of 25.5 million bpd,” he told reporters at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ headquarters in Vienna.