Trump's Criticism Of OPEC Regulating Prices 'Unfair' - Equatorial Guinea Minister

US President Donald Trump's criticism of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) over influencing crude prices is "unfair," Equatorial Guinea's Energy Minister Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima told Sputnik in an interview

LONDON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2019) - US President Donald Trump's criticism of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) over influencing crude prices is "unfair," Equatorial Guinea's Energy Minister Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima told Sputnik in an interview.

Earlier this week, Trump tweeted that oil prices were getting "too high" and asked OPEC to ease its efforts to coordinate output.

"OPEC and the rest of the producers, we don't control internal problems. We don't control the issue with Iran, we don't control Venezuela, or Libya. We don't even control the slowdown of China's economy.

So to blame everything on OPEC it's not fair," the minister said.

Obiang Lima added that the United States was "the No. 1 producer in the world right now."

'So at this moment, he [Trump] has to watch his own companies in the United States," the minister pointed out,

In 2016, OPEC and a number of non-cartel producers agreed to cut output by a total of 1.8 million barrels per day in an effort to stabilize global oil prices. The agreement, which came into effect in 2017, has been extended twice since then.