US Energy Secretary Rick Perry met with his Saudi counterpart, Khalid al-Falih, on Monday in Washington, the US Energy Department said. Perry and Falih discussed the state of world oil markets and efforts to share technologies to develop “clean fossil fuels”, the department said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Perry is also expected to meet with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak on Thursday in Moscow, a US source and a diplomatic source said Sunday night.
High oil prices are a risk for US President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Nov. 6 congressional elections.
Global oil prices have already risen sharply to more than $76 a barrel in recent weeks on concerns about sanctions on Iran’s oil exports that Washington will renew on Nov. 5.
Trump withdrew the United States in May from the nuclear deal with Iran and he is pushing consuming countries to cut their purchases of Iranian oil to zero.
It is unclear what the United States may offer big oil producers in return for higher oil production.
Saudi Arabia has been seeking a civilian nuclear agreement with the United States that could allow the kingdom to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium.
Russia wants the United States to drop sanctions on Moscow. OPEC and non-OPEC officials will meet later this month to discuss proposals for sharing an oil output increase, after the groups decided in June to boost output moderately.
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