US won't intervene in oil market amid price declines on supply

[DUBAI] 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 Mondau. Mr 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," Mr Hochstein said.

"This is about a global market that is addressing the supply-demand curve."

Oil prices have dropped 53 per cent in the past year as growing production from the US, Russia and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries overwhelmed demand.

The International Energy said last week that the effects on US production are so far "marginal."

"One of the most remarkable aspects of this recent period has been the resilience of the American energy market," Mr 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."

BLOOMBERG