Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman warned that sanctions and underinvestment in the energy sector could lead to energy shortages, Reuters reports.

The European Union has imposed a series of sanctions against Russia, reducing Russian energy exports, and other Western powers have also imposed measures.

All these so-called sanctions, embargoes, lack of investment, they will boil down to one thing and one thing only - a shortage of energy supplies of all kinds when they are most needed, the minister said at an industry conference in Riyadh.

He did not specifically mention Russia in his remarks.

The energy minister also said that Saudi Arabia is working to send liquefied petroleum gas, which is most often used as cooking and heating fuel, to Ukraine.

Asked what lessons have been learned from energy market dynamics in 2022, Prince Abdulaziz said the most important one is that the rest of the world trusts OPEC+.

OPEC+, an alliance made up of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other countries, including Russia, last year agreed to cut its production by 2 million barrels a day, or about 2% of global demand, from November through the end of 2023 to support the market.

The OPEC+ group, which met last Wednesday, endorsed the decision, and the main message throughout the meeting was that the group would stay the course chosen until the end of the agreement.