Saudi Arabia will keep a “solid will” and maintain the nation’s stability even with falling crude prices, King Abdullah said in a speech read by his crown prince.
Saudi Arabia will enjoy “safety and stability,” according to a copy of the king’s speech read by Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz with Abdullah in the hospital for pneumonia. His medical procedure was successful, Abdullah Al Al Sheikh, the head of the Shura Council advisory body, said during the televised session in Riyadh.
Speculation about the king’s health comes at a time when oil prices are at a 5 1/2-year low. Saudi Arabia led the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to maintain its output target on November 27, putting the onus on North American shale drillers and other producers to reduce supply.
Oil markets are witnessing “tensions caused by many factors, chiefly the slow growth in the global economy,” the king said, according to a copy of his speech. “These tensions aren’t new to the oil market, and we’ve dealt with them in the past with a solid will, with wisdom and experience, and we will deal with the current developments in the oil markets in the same way.”
King Abdullah, born in 1924, was admitted on December 31 to the King Abdulaziz Medical City hospital in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. He required the temporary insertion of tubes to assist his breathing, the state-run Saudi Press Agency said.
* with reporting by Bloomberg News
