US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo is applying verbal pressure to Saudi Arabia, encouraging the Middle Eastern country who started the oil price war to “rise to the occasion” and reassure the oil markets, the State Department has said, according to the Arab News . Pompeo spoke to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) before a G20 conference call, urging at least action through words, at a time when oil prices are particularly vulnerable—not just because of the oil price war, but also because of the depressed demand stemming from the coronavirus. But the words seem laughable, given that the low oil prices are precisely what Saudi Arabia is hoping to achieve. Saudi Arabia has, for years, been doing the lion’s share of the production cutting that OPEC agreed on to hold up oil prices, at great cost to its own finances. Meanwhile, other OPEC nations such […]