The Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Eng. Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi stressed that it is difficult to predict the volume of oil supplies for the future.
In a statement to the press following a meeting with the Italian Minister of Productive Activities, Antonio Marzano, Al-Naimi said: “We look at the strength of demand and potential for supply. We also evaluate levels of the world’s storage capacity. There is no doubt that the oil price is currently high because there is a threat to supplies. “There is a daily feeling among observers, and those who will be affected, that there is a threat to oil supplies,” he said.
“As an oil producing country, we think that currently there is sufficient output. We realise the tension, but we have a mechanism to make up for any shortage in the future, and we have demonstrated this ability on several occasions in the past, such as in 1978, 1979 and 1991. In addition to this, we have recently increased oil production to cover the shortage resulting from current protests in Venezuela.”
In the case that Iraqi oil supply is cut off, he said that the Iraqi supply to markets is between one-and-a-half million and two million barrels of oil per day, which OPEC members, notably Saudi Arabia, have the capacity to account for in such an eventuality.
He noted that the Kingdom’s daily oil production capacity is almost 8 million barrels, saying that according to the Kingdom’s production quota, it is capable of the additional production of at least two-and-a-half million barrels of oil per day. “This means that the Kingdom is able to supply the market with ten-and-a-half million barrels of oil per day,” Al-Naimi said.
Source: SPA
