Republican Tom Tiffany Asks for Hearing On Biden’s Request To Delay OPEC Cut

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is headed by Saudi Arabia and includes 12 other member countries. It holds 81.5% of the globe’s proven oil reserves.

Representative Tom Tiffany (R - Wisconsin) has called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D - California) to open hearings into the Biden administration’s calls to the Saudi Arabian government in an attempt to stop or delay their planned oil production cut.

Last week, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that OPEC+ will be cutting oil production by two million barrels a day. The move angered the Biden administration which said it was a sign that Saudi Arabia was siding with Russia and that the cut to OPEC+ production would limit the effectiveness of western sanctions.

The cut is also sure to raise gas prices in the United States. That is a problem for the Biden administration and Democrats as they fight to keep control of Congress entering November’s midterm elections.

The Saudi government released a statement saying that the United States requested that OPEC+ delay its production cut until the next OPEC+ meeting in early December.

“The government of the kingdom clarified through its continuous consultation with the US administration that all economic analysis indicates that postponing the OPEC+ decision by a month, according to what has been suggested, would have had negative economic consequences,” the statement released by Saudi Arabia said on Thursday.

Saudi Arabia leads the OPEC+ conglomerate, which has a massive influence on energy prices worldwide.

That statement led Tiffany to write a letter to Pelosi on Friday, requesting that she open investigations into the conversations between the Biden administration and the Saudi government. Tiffany is concerned that the request may have been politically motivated, aimed at delaying any increase in gas prices until after the midterm elections.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby contends that the move was not a domestic political move and was focused on punishing Russia with western sanctions.

“In recent weeks, the Saudis conveyed to us — privately and publicly — their intention to reduce oil production, which they knew would increase Russian revenues and blunt the effectiveness of sanctions. That is the wrong direction. We presented Saudi Arabia with analysis to show that there was no market basis to cut production targets, and that they could easily wait for the next OPEC meeting to see how things developed. Other OPEC nations communicated to us privately that they also disagreed with the Saudi decision, but felt coerced to support Saudi’s direction,” Kirby said in a statement.

The statement did not specify which OPEC+ nations Kirby was referring to.

Republicans were not satisfied with the explanation and Tiffany’s letter suggested it may have been done to gain an “in-kind contribution” essentially a quid pro quo.

“This is a very serious allegation,” Tiffany’s letter read. “One that, if true, may very well constitute an illegal solicitation of a foreign in-kind contribution by the White House on behalf of Democrats’ midterm campaign efforts.”

The letter asks for transcripts of any calls that took place between Biden administration officials and representatives from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regarding oil production.

The allegations from the @KSAmofaEN are serious, and if the Biden administration did attempt to pressure a foreign government to influence the outcome of the U.S. election, that’s something Americans deserve to know.

Americans deserve answers, & @SpeakerPelosi must take action. pic.twitter.com/xenpYCVz81

— Rep. Tom Tiffany (@RepTiffany) October 13, 2022

“It is the House’s responsibility to exercise its oversight responsibilities and get to the bottom of these troubling reports as soon as possible,” the letter closes.

Tiffany’s communication director Caroline Briscoe clarified to the New York Post that the Representative is not saying that the request was quid pro quo “yet” but wants to “investigate to determine if it was one.”

The letter is backdropped by the Biden administration responding to the planned OPEC+ production cut by saying there would be “consequences” for Saudi Arabia’s decision.

As of Saturday night, Pelosi has not responded to Tiffany’s letter.