Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates yesterday blamed the oil price rout on producers outside Opec and reaffirmed their stance to keep output at current levels.

Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, said he was “100 per cent not pleased” with the near 50 per cent slide in crude oil prices since the middle of June, but said it was a lack of non-Opec co-operation that was a key contributor to the sharp decline.

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia and other countries sought to bring back balance to the market, but the lack of co-operation from other producers outside Opec and the spread of misleading information and speculation led to the continuation of the drop in prices,” he said at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi, according to Reuters. “Let the most efficient producers produce.”