Business | Oil & Gas

Saudi Arabia may increase oil output

Saudi Arabia may announce an oil output increase at a meeting it will host in Jeddah on June 22 for oil producers and consumers because customers are asking for more crude, an Opec official said on Sunday

  • Bloomberg
  • Published: 14:01 June 15, 2008
  • Gulf News

Dubai: Saudi Arabia may announce an oil output increase at a meeting it will host in Jeddah on June 22 for oil producers and consumers because customers are asking for more crude, an Opec official said on Sunday

There is more demand for Saudi oil from “all over'' the world, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries' official, who asked not to be identified, said in a phone interview.

He declined to comment on the size of the possible increase, and denied reports that the Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi would make a statement on oil production on Sunday.

The state-owned Saudi Aramco said June 13 that it would start pumping oil from its 500,000 barrel-a-day Khursaniyah field within a month.

The kingdom proposed to host the Jeddah summit after oil prices more than doubled in a year to a record $139.12 a barrel on June 6. Crude oil fell last Friday to settle at $134.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange as Al Naimi said prices were "unjustified."

Saudi Arabia last month said it would ship an additional 300,000 barrels a day of crude from June to satisfy customer demand.

Al Arabiya Television said on Sunday citing an oil ministry official, that Saudi Arabia was yet to determine the size of a planned oil output increase.

"The kingdom was yet to decide the volume of the planned increase in its oil output the official said, adding that determining any increase in output levels before the meeting of consumers and producers in Jeddah would be premature," Al Arabiya said.

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