Saudi Arabia will increase its daily oil production from 9 million barrels a day to 9.7 million barrels from July 1, in order to help counteract the sharp rise in oil prices worldwide, said King Abdullah on Sunday. This would be the highest rate of production for the kingdom, since 1981.
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Saudi Arabia will increase its daily oil production from 9 million barrels a day to 9.7 million barrels from July 1, in order to help counteract the sharp rise in oil prices worldwide, said King Abdullah on Sunday. This would be the highest rate of production for the kingdom, since 1981.
If the demand still persists, Saudi Arabia may add more oil after July, said the Oil Minister Ali al-Naim.
The world’s largest oil exporter wants "reasonable" prices for producers and consumers, King Abdullah said in speech to open an oil meeting here.
The government of Saudi Arabia is planning to invest in oil projects that would allow the nation to produce 12.5 million barrels a day by the end of the year. If required, it could further increase it by 2.5 million barrels a day, from some new giant fields, said Al-Naimi
Oil consumers across the world have been constantly urging Saudi Arabia to increase its crude output to help curb the soaring price of oil.
King Abdullah's comments came at the closing stages of the Jeddah energy summit, which was attended by seven international organizations and 25 oil companies. The king, in his speech, called for OPEC to set aside $1 billion for a strategy to relieve the oil price crisis. He said $500 million should be given to developing nations to help them get the energy they need.
Consumers and economies across the world have been hit hard by the skyrocketing prices of oil, which closed near $135 a barrel on Friday. Many countries experienced social turbulence as the mounting fuel prices led to significant swelling in the cost of food and other basic goods.
According to King Abdullah there are "many factors that made oil prices high." Besides the increased demand, he also cited oil speculators and an increase in taxes in consumer nations.
LOOMIN GAS CRISIS
The meeting in Saudi Arabia hasn't achieved any substantial results from what I can see. Oil prices are still going up. There must be something else that's driving prices up and I think I know what it is. Contrary to what US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman says I don't think supply and demand are really causing the problem. There are to many other factors at play here. Too many middle men skimming profits. Too much manipulation of supplies and inventories. Although oil appears to be a good hedge against inflation, a lower dollar and a low oil supply, in reality nothing could be farther from the truth. Our oil supply is becoming less of an issue because inflation is causing a surplus of gas. The main thing driving inflation is high oil prices and as inflation goes higher investors buy more oil driving inflation higher again. Some experts predict this will trigger the worldwide recession. This will result in lower gas consumption and it will free up more gas supplies.. I am no expert but even I can see the writing on the wall. Investors are going to loose their shirts on oil. We may be looking at another ENRON. Hedge funds will topple leaving old age pensioners with nothing. The government won't be able to bail them out this time because the cost would be far to great. The CFTC and FSA will be too slow to react to the cracks forming in commodities trading so the govenment will finally step in. By that time it will probably be too late. www.nbtv.ca