Fuel trucks line up in front of storage tanks at the North Jiddah bulk plant, an Aramco oil facility, in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 21, 2021. File Photo: VCG

The US President Joe Biden pledged on Tuesday that "there will be consequences" for US relations with Saudi Arabia after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its non-OPEC allies announced to cut oil production over US objections, but Chinese experts said that such verbal threats would hardly have a substantial effect. The US has to accept the fact that its hegemony does not work as well as it used to, they noted.

In an exclusive interview with CNN on Tuesday, Biden said there would be "consequences" for Saudi Arabia after it partnered with Moscow to announce a cut in oil production, a move that could cause gas prices to increase as November's midterm elections approach, CNN reported.

On October 5, OPEC+ announced a plan to cut oil output by 2 million barrels a day, equal to 2 percent of the global oil supply, a move which Saudi Arabia said was necessary to respond to rising interest rates in the West and a weaker global economy, according to Reuters.

The move was seen by analysts as a "slap in the face" for the Biden administration which has struggled to respond with very limited options. Especially considering that the move came just three months after Biden visited Saudi Arabia to seek an oil production increase, and OPEC+ agreed a few weeks later to a modest 100,000-barrel increase in production.

For Biden, the decision was a particular affront because of his efforts over the summer to repair ties with Saudi Arabia, a vital but complicated ally of the US in the Middle East, according to US media reports.

The US has got used to seeing its allies do whatever they are asked to do even those moves would hurt their own interests. But the latest oil production cut proves that the US' allies in the Middle East now would do what are in their own interest instead of yielding to the US' pressure and doing what the US wants, Li Weijian, a research fellow with the Institute for Foreign Policy Studies of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, and vice president of the Chinese Association of Middle East Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

The US may play some little tricks on Saudi Arabia over the issue, but little real impact would be exerted. The US has to accept that its hegemony does not work as well as it used to do, Li noted.

On Monday, one day before Biden's remarks, the Democratic chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democratic Senator Bob Menendez called for a freeze on cooperation with Saudi Arabia, including most arms sales, after OPEC+ announced last week it would cut oil production, Reuters reported.

The decision of the OPEC+ to cut oil production is made in consideration of its members' interests given the market situation. But in the eye of the US, it is a gesture that the OPEC is partnering with Moscow against the US, which reflected the US' self-centered global strategies as it has teamed up with its allies from G7 to implement a price cap for Russian oil, analysts said.

The Biden administration may face more chaotic situations after the midterms since many people predicted that the Republicans may win control of the House, analysts noted.

It reflects the widening cracks between OPEC members and the US, which used to be allies, as the world's major oil producers are growing increasingly impatient with the US' self-centered global strategies, they noted.

When the US is imposing sanctions using economic instruments, that creates a precedent for everything… And that's going to create uncertainty - not only for Indonesia, for all other countries, Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati warned Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg.

"The [Russia-Ukraine] war is no longer just a military war - I think that's really changed the landscape of geopolitics, diplomacy and economic relations. That's really another thing that we haven't digested yet. What does it mean for the global economy?" Indrawati said.