Business | Oil & Gas
Saudi Arabia confident of meeting expansion target
Top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia is confident it will reach a target to lift crude oil output capacity, a top executive from the country's state oil firm said on Monday.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:53 February 20, 2008
London: Top world oil exporter Saudi Arabia is confident it will reach a target to lift crude oil output capacity, a top executive from the country's state oil firm said on Monday.
Saudi Arabia holds the world's largest oil reserves and is expanding supply capacity to meet rising world demand at a time when higher costs are leading to delays and cancellations across the oil and gas industry.
State oil firm Saudi Aramco aims to lift supply capacity to 12 million barrels per day, enough to meet 14 per cent of current world demand, by the end of 2009, Khalid Al Buainain said at an energy conference in London.
"We're pressing ahead and we are very comfortable, we're very confident," Al Buainain, senior vice-president, refining, marketing and international, said on the sidelines of the conference. "We will reach it."
The 2009 target cited by Al Buainain refers to capacity excluding the Saudi share of the neutral zone between the country and Kuwait. Present capacity is 11.3 million bpd including the zone.
Aramco is confident it will reach the goal despite one major project coming onstream later than expected.
The 500,000 barrel-per-day Khursaniyah oilfield should be pumping within two months later than previously scheduled, Al Buainain said earlier.
An official at Aramco had said in January the giant field, previously scheduled to begin pumping at the end of last year, would come onstream in the first quarter of this year.
Saudi Arabia pumps oil at agreed levels with fellow members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and is the only member able to boost supply significantly at short notice.
Saudi oil minister Ali Al Naimi said on February 1 that the kingdom was pumping around 9.2 million bpd, more than its informal Opec target of 8.94 million bpd.
Adjustments
Al Buainain said that production rates would have to be adjusted at other fields once Khursaniyah was brought online.
"This will be additional capacity that's available," he said. "For commissioning and startup purposes we'll bring it online, and we'll have to adjust somewhere else."
The Aramco executive said plans to build two oil refineries with Conoco-Phillips and Total were "progressing well", despite some industry concerns. "Like everyone else, we have seen an escalation of costs, but it has not deterred us," Al Buainain said.
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