Bloomberg/New York


The US won’t intervene in the oil market amid falling crude prices, according to Amos Hochstein, the US State Department’s energy
 

envoy.
The US will let “the market” decide what happens, Hochstein said in an interview at a conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Hochstein is special envoy and coordinator for international affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources.
“When people ask the question ‘what will the US do?,’ it’s really the market that’s going to have to decide what happens,”

Hochstein said. “This is about a global market that is addressing the supply-demand curve.” Asked what the US could do about

falling prices and instability in oil markets, he said: “We do have mechanisms to work with our partners around the world if

something extreme happens, but that’s not where I think we are and I think the markets so far can adjust themselves.” Oil prices

have dropped 53% in the past year as growing production from the US, Russia and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries

overwhelmed demand. The International Energy said last week that the effects on US production are so far “marginal.” West Texas

Intermediate was $1.32 lower at $47.37 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:32 am Singapore

time, compared with the close of January 16.
Brent lost 9 cents to $48.75.
“One of the most remarkable aspects of this recent period has been the resilience of the American energy market,” Hochstein said.

US oil production growth has swelled to its fastest pace in more than three decades, driven by output from shale deposits.
Cheaper oil prices won’t stop development of alternative energy sources, he said. “We have really switched paradigms here where

renewable energy really can continue to grow, even when there are low oil prices,” he said. “That’s true globally.”