Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said OPEC is taking a measured approach to supply cuts, directly responding to comments from President Donald Trump earlier in the week telling the oil producing body to "relax." "We are taking it easy," he told CNBC's Dan Murphy while at an OPEC symposium in Riyadh, when asked about the U.S. president's tweet. "The 25 countries are taking a very slow and measured approach. Just as the second half last year proved, we are interested in market stability first and foremost." On Monday, Trump lobbed the latest of a series of tweets aimed at OPEC's planned production cuts, agreed upon between the cartel's members and non-member allies in December of last year to counter a drop in oil prices and soaring inventories. "Oil prices getting too high. OPEC, please relax and take it easy. World cannot take a price hike - fragile!" the president said. Tweet 1 "We listen to the honorable president, and hear his concern about consumers and assure everybody, whether it's him or developing country leaders, that we are as focused on the interests of the global economy and consumers around the world as we are focused on the interests of producers," al-Falih said. The U.S. became the world's largest oil producer in late 2018.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih speaks to the media during Saudi government ministers brief in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia December 19, 2018. Faisal Al Nasser | Reuters

OPEC plus, which refers to OPEC and a collection of non-OPEC oil producers working in tandem with the organization, agreed on output cuts totaling 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) in order to stem a sinking market and support their own export-dependent economies. The move riled Trump, who wants to keep oil prices low. The cuts failed to bring the price of global benchmark Brent crude back up to anywhere near its early October highs of more than $84 a barrel, though it reclaimed losses from a low of just over $50 a barrel at the end of December to a year high of $67.18 last week. Brent fell by 28 cents as the minister spoke on Wednesday, from $65.75 to $65.47, and was trading at $65.57 at 8:35 p.m. London time. Trump's tweets sent prices sliding on Monday, before they steadied Tuesday on signs that OPEC would continue its program of cuts. Saudi Arabia has so far borne the brunt of the cuts, with plans to slash its output to 500,000 bpd below its quota in March. Oil is up about 20 percent since the start of the year.

'Leaning toward' a production cut extension

Much speculation has surrounded whether OPEC plus will decide on deeper production cuts when OPEC members meet again in April. But December's production agreement is meant to last until June, by which time al-Falih said an extension of the deal is likely. "We remain flexible, I am leaning toward the likelihood of an extension in the second half (of 2019), but that's not automatic," he said. "If we find out the fundamentals are tightening, by June you can bet that I will be — just like we did last year — encouraging my colleagues within the OPEC plus to ease the voluntary limits we set on ourselves and to increase supplies to ensure that there is no unnecessary tightening in the market."