Riyadh - (AFP) - The Saudi Energy Minister on Tuesday criticized the United States' decision to withdraw millions of barrels from its strategic reserves, considering it tantamount to "manipulating the markets", in the latest episode of the dispute with Washington related to cutting oil production.

"People are draining their strategic reserves, they have exhausted them, they are using them as a tool to manipulate the markets, while their main purpose was to alleviate the supply shortage," Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the "Future Investment Initiative" conference in Riyadh.

"But it is my deep duty to make it clear to the world that the loss of the strategic reserve could be painful in the coming months," said the prince, who is the son of Saudi King Salman.

Prince Abdulaziz did not explicitly mention the United States during his speech, but it comes less than a week after President Joe Biden decided to withdraw an additional 15 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves in an attempt to reduce the price of black gold.

This amount, which will be pumped into the market in December, constitutes the last tranche of a program announced by the US President in the spring to pump 180 million barrels to counter the rise in oil prices linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The statements also come in the wake of the announcement of the "OPEC Plus" alliance, a significant reduction in production quotas by two million barrels per day, as of November.

The White House considered the Saudi- led oil cartel's decision to side with Russia in the Ukraine war.

It is a proposition that Saudi Arabia has officially rejected repeatedly, and Prince Abdulaziz renewed his exclusion on Tuesday.
He said, "I constantly listen to Are you with us or against us? Is there any space that we are with Saudi Arabia and with the Saudi people?", before the hall erupted in applause.

In response to a question about how the long-term partnership between Riyadh and Washington can be put back on track, he said, "I think we in Saudi Arabia have decided to be the mature person and let it be."

Hundreds of CEOs and leaders of the financial sector are attending in Riyadh the investment conference dubbed "Davos in the Desert", which analysts say will highlight Saudi Arabia's geopolitical strength despite its strained relationship with the United States.

The "Future Investment Initiative" was launched in 2017 as a window to the world for the largest oil exporter in the world, as it tries to diversify its economy away from black gold under the leadership of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Up to 400 US CEOs are expected to attend this year's edition, although the conference is witnessing the absence of official US representation for the first time.

The organizer of the event told AFP last week that no US officials had been invited.

During a seminar on Tuesday morning, Jamie Dimon, CEO of the US bank "JP Morgan", expressed his optimism that the bilateral relations between the two countries will eventually improve.

"Saudi Arabia and the United States have been allies for the past 75 years... and they will work to resolve it," he said.

"The two countries will remain allies in the future," he added.