Saudi Arabia won't cut oil production alone, Minister says

Oil futures benchmarks took another tumble in Asian trading after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister Ali Al-Naimi said the country would not cut production alone.

"We tried, we held meetings and we did not succeed because non-OPEC countries were insisting that OPEC carries the burden [of cuts] and we refuse that OPEC bears the responsibility. Everybody is supposed to participate if we want to improve oil prices," Al-Naimi said on Sunday.

He also rebuffed claims that Saudi Arabia was trying to hurt marginal producers in North America via high production levels to keep the oil price at cyclical lows. "We repeat that the market determines the prices not any single producer," Al-Naimi said.

OPEC currently holds a 30% global oil market share with the Saudis being dominant producers within the cartel. The Brent front month futures contract was trading down 89 cents or 1.6% to $54.13 a barrel, while the WTI was down 93 cents or 2% to $45.64 at 08:15 on Monday following Al-Naimi's comments.

Elsewhere, Mohammed Al-Madi, Saudi Arabia’s representative at OPEC, said that hitting the $100 to $120 per barrel oil price level again would be "difficult" over the short-term.

Speaking at an energy conference on Monday, Al-Madi opined that Saudi Arabia’s policy on oil production had no “political dimension.”

“We are not against anybody or against the [production of US shale gas]. On the contrary we welcome it, as it balances the market in the long run."