The Furious Call Between MBS and Putin: Was the Oil Price War Launched Over the Phone?

Revelations by Saudi officials have referred to an angry phone call, between the Saudi heir and the Russian president, as being the turning point; leading to the oil price war waged last month between the two countries.

According to Middle East Eye, Mohammad bin Salman and Vladimir Putin discussed suggestions of oil production cuts, in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, that has curbed the global demand for oil. 

The Saudi officials told the London-based website that the call didn't end on good terms, noting that "leaders on both ends were shouting at each other, as the conversation turned very personal."

"Just before that meeting, there was a call between Putin and MBS. MBS was very aggressive and gave an ultimatum. He threatened that if there is no agreement, Saudi would start a price war," Middle East Eye reported.

The anonymous Saudi official confirmed that oil prices started to fall after the "disastrous" call, which was blessed by US senior advisor Jared Kushner; a good friend of the Saudi de facto ruler.

Last month, Saudi and Russian disagreements on oil production cuts had led to a Saudi pledge of increasing production up to 12m barrels a day during April. This happened before the two countries came to an agreement with OPEC+ members to cut back on production starting from May to avoid over-flooding the market with unneeded oil.

Despite the OPEC+ agreement, WTI oil crude futures plummeted sharply on April 20th falling into negative territory for the first time in history, at the same time Brent crude witnessed increased instability with oil companies reporting running out of storage space for barrels.