Saudi mulls increasing oil output from Nov as US sanctions on Iran loom

Saudi Arabia said on Monday that it expects its oil production to rise next month from the current 10.7 million barrels per day (mbpd) and it has the required capacity in place to do so.

Saudi Petroleum Minister Khalid Al Falih's remarks to reporters here on the sidelines of the India Energy Forum organised by CERAWeek came in the backdrop volatile crude oil prices and with the US sanctions on Iran due to come into effect from November 4.

Earlier on Monday, Al Falih met Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

"Saudi Arabia has the capacity to produce 12 million bpd and is currently producing 10.7 million bpd and production will rise further next month," Al Falih said.

In his address at the conference, the Saudi Minister said he told Modi that as a strategic partner of India, the kingdom was committed to meeting India's rising oil demand.
 

"We are in close contact with all major consumers to seek their views and listen to their concerns and take those into consideration as we set the kingdom's energy policy and discuss it with our partners in OPEC and outside of OPEC," he said.

"I want to assure you of our commitment to supply your energy needs, especially oil, and more broadly to promote market stability and to offset any market shortfall."

With domestic petrol and diesel prices daily breaching record levels, Modi on Monday also met here with the chief executives of major global and Indian oil and gas companies.
 

Al Falih said that Saudi Arabia had invested tens of billions of dollars to build its spare production capacity.

"Given the disruptions that have taken place, oil would be easily in the three-digit range had it not been for the extra efforts the kingdom had done.

"We have invested tens of billions of dollars to build spare capacity of 2-3 million barrels per day over years. That is equivalent to the production capacity of major producers."