Trump calls Saudi's King to discuss oil supplies

US President Donald Trump called Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday and they discussed efforts being made to maintain supplies to ensure oil market stability and global economic growth, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

The call comes days after the US president criticized Opec for high oil prices and called again on the exporting group to boost crude output to cool the market ahead of midterm elections in November for US Congress members.

Saudi Arabia is the world's top oil exporter and Opec's de-facto leader.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last week, Trump said Opec members were “as usual ripping off the rest of the world”.

“I don't like it. Nobody should like it,” Trump said on Tuesday.

“We defend many of these nations for nothing, and then they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices. Not good. We want them to stop raising prices, we want them to start lowering prices.”

The White House said in a statement that the two leaders had a call “on issues of regional concern”, without giving further details.

Oil prices rose more than 1 percent on Friday, with Brent climbing to a four-year high, as US sanctions on Tehran squeezed Iranian crude exports, tightening supply even as other key exporters increased production.

Brent crude LCOc1 futures settled at $82.72 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 futures settled at $73.25 a barrel.