Saudi Arabia plans to increase oil production by over 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027, international media outlets cited the energy minister as saying on Monday. Speaking at an energy conference in Bahrain, Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman said his country could maintain production at over 13 million bpd if the market needs more oil.
Salman also said upstream investments would be boosted in line with their goal.
'We have no money to waste somewhere else,' Salman said, stressing that output could reach between 13.2 and 13.4 million bpd.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Thursday said global oil supply in April saw its biggest monthly loss since February last year, decreasing by 710,000 bpd to 98.14 million bpd, as Russia shut in nearly 1 million bpd.
The IEA’s report came in the wake of the war between Russia and Ukraine, which continues to strain political ties in Eastern Europe. This has prompted numerous sanctions on Russia, the last of which includes a ban on oil from the country’s oil and gas exports.
However, the supply crunch on global markets had already begun long before concerns arose from geopolitical risks in Eastern Europe.
Oil-producing countries, which had to cut supplies in the early days of the pandemic in 2020, had difficulties in restarting production at the same pace in 2021 when demand was on the rise and supplies were depleting due to insufficient investments and technical problems.
Undersupplied oil markets are now faced with supply concerns instead of demand concerns.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) continues its incremental output increase policy, however, according to the IEA, the group is failing to reach official output targets.
(Anadolu Agency, May 16, 2022)
