Oil executive: Saudi Arabia sees US oil as threat

The CEO of the oil company Continental Resources says Saudi Arabia has been trying for years to squander U.S. crude oil production.

In an interview with CNBC on Friday, Harold Hamm said “Sometimes they’re successful. This time, we hope they’re not.” 

{mosads}The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries views record oil production in the U.S. as an economic threat, Hamm said. 

“I think the Saudis have made up their mind they’re not going to bear the brunt of a cut, so they force everybody else to do it,” Hamm told CNBC. 

He added that, as a result of the squeeze on production, OPEC is “not very strong at all” now. 

Plummeting oil prices have spurred waves of job losses across oil operations in the U.S. and has put a clamp on spending for producers this year. 

Hamm expressed some optimism that the U.S. would begin to repeal the decades-old ban on exporting crude oil.

The White House, however, hasn’t publicly changed its tune on the ban.