Bush visit to Saudi Arabia goes as expected: hospitality but little additional oil

"The Saudi government has reiterated their policy that Saudi Arabia is willing to put on the oil market whatever oil is necessary to meet the demand of Saudi Arabia's customers," Hadley said according to a transcript posted on the White House web page.

He said Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi basically told US officials, "If our customers come to us and say they have a shortage of crude oil, we will meet that request. But so far," Hadley continued, "what he's saying to us is, there is not unfilled demand from their customers."

Based on those remarks, news services flashed the story that Saudi Arabia had rejected Bush's request to increase production.

After Hadley met with reporters, Naimi held his own press conference and said that just a week before, Saudi Arabia agreed to increase its production 300,000 barrels/day for June, in response to requests from about 50 customers around the world, including many in the US.

So apparently, there had been an unfilled demand from customers that Saudi Arabia had agreed to meet. However, in not so many words, Naimi indicated that Saudi Arabia was not doing Bush's bidding.

In the great tradition of Arab hospitality, the timing of Naimi's announcement - one week after the decision was made - suggests that Saudi Arabia did not want to send Bush home absolutely empty-handed and without offering a possible, if problematic, face-saving gesture.

After all, a 300,000 b/d increase in production doesn't buy you much economic relief or political capital. The market shrugged off the news, with NYMEX crude oil prices closing Friday up $2.12, to $126.29/barrel.

And Democrats in Washington were in full-throated roar. "The president seems to value his friendship with the Saudis more than his obligation to help the American people with gas prices," said Senator Charles Schumer, Democrat-New York.

In his weekly radio address today, the president was disinclined to make much of his oil-related discussions with the Saudis. "We talked about oil production and gasoline prices," was all he said.