Q: And my question on Saudi Arabia: Why not have the President go there and just not meet with the Crown Prince?

MR. KIRBY:  The President is going to Saudi for the GCC — the GCC+3, to be honest.  It's nine states in the region.  There's a big agenda there, Kaitlan, on the Gulf Cooperation Council.  It's counterterrorism.  It's climate change.  Certainly, it's — oil production, obviously, is going to be on the agenda.

OPEC production of crude oil and other liquids is about 34-35 million barrels per day (mmbd), of which Saudi output is about 10 mmbd, out of global production of around 100 mmbd. OPEC surplus production capacity is about 3 mmbd, of which the Saudi share is about 1 mmbd.

Has no one in the administration asked the obvious question, to wit, what a plausible (or even an implausible) increase in GCC/Saudi crude oil output might yield in terms of U.S. gasoline prices? Amazingly, it would appear not, as the answer is surprisingly small in the context of gasoline prices now averaging over $5 per gallon for the U.S. as a whole.