Washington, D.C. – SAFE President and CEO Robbie Diamond issued the following statement in reaction to OPEC’s decision to maintain production levels in its fight to hold onto market share:

“Once again, the global economy assumes the role of helpless bystander as OPEC member countries—producers of some of the world’s lowest-cost oil supplies—meet and decide on how best to control the oil market to their benefit. Employing its outsized power, the cartel, led by Saudi Arabia, has found it in its best interest to protect its market share despite record output that has depressed prices and all but killed investment in future capacity.”

“The fact that just the meeting of these members sends oil prices on an unpredictable rollercoaster ride illustrates the reality that the oil market is not a free market. Prices dropped 3.6 percent today on mere rumors that the cartel would raise its production target by 1.5 million barrels per day. OPEC can conspire to reinvent the price of oil to suit whatever strategy it wants—bald-faced collusion that is against the law in the United States, and yet we accept it for a resource we rely on to power over 90 percent of our transportation sector, the backbone of the economy.”

“With persistent low oil prices wiping out new capital expenditures and accelerating demand growth, today’s market dynamics are sowing the seeds for price spikes further down the road, and all the economic damage that comes with them. We must take a long view on the problem of oil dependence, transforming our transportation sector so that we are not dependent on one fuel and so consumers have a choice of fuels, for the sake of our security and prosperity.”

About Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE)

 Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) is a nonpartisan organization that aims to reduce America’s dependence on oil and improve U.S. energy security to bolster national security and strengthen the economy. SAFE advocates for expanded domestic production of U.S. oil and gas resources, continued improvements in fuel efficiency, and in the long-term, breaking oil’s stranglehold on the transportation sector through alternatives like natural gas for heavy-duty trucks and plug-in electric vehicles. In 2006, SAFE joined with General P.X. Kelley (Ret.), 28th Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, and Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President, and CEO of FedEx Corporation, to form the Energy Security Leadership Council (ESLC), a group of business and former military leaders committed to reducing U.S. oil dependence.

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