Qatar energy minister remarks on Saudi oil price war

Qatar's Minister of State for Energy Affairs said Saudi Arabia made a big miscalculation when it launched an oil price war with Russia earlier this year, flooding an already saturated global market that was reeling from falling crude demand in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns, according to business news network CNBC reports.

Saad al-Kaabi, who is also CEO of Qatar Petroleum, said "It was sort of a double-whammy where the market got hit in a very big way."

"I think it was a very big mistake to flood the market," he added. "Flooding the market is what caused us to go to a very low level. And then the pandemic basically took it almost to a very dangerous area where people could not afford to produce any more."

Qatar withdrew from OPEC in January 2019.

Prices of global benchmark Brent crude have more than doubled from their April lows, but are still almost 40 percent down from where they started the year. On Tuesday, Brent finished the session at just above $41 a barrel.

Al-Kaabi said he is hopeful that energy demand will pick up as lockdowns ease across the globe, though he believes the recovery will be gradual.