On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN Newsroom,” White House Senior Adviser on Energy Security Amos Hochstein said OPEC’s increased oil output of 100,000 barrels a day won’t have a significant impact on the prices Americans pay.
Co-host Jim Sciutto asked, “OPEC has agreed to raise output slightly, 100,000 barrels a day. As you know, that’s a fraction of the daily output. Does that significantly impact folks’ wallets here at home?”
Hochstein responded, “Well, no, it doesn’t. But it’s a step in the right direction. Look, when the — just before the president announced his travel to Saudi Arabia, to meet with Gulf leaders and Middle East leaders, there was an announcement of an increase, a more significant increase of oil production by OPEC for July and August. We saw reports yesterday that, for the month of July, Saudi Arabia increased their production quite significantly. And now, this was supposed to be a zero [increase], and we’re seeing some increases, not a lot. But our main focus is not about the numbers of barrels, our main focus is on bringing prices down. … And there, I think that we’re in decent shape and we’re going to continue to work to bring it down lower.”
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