RIYADH – Saudi Arabia will continue exploring for oil and natural gas, despite the transformation of the global energy industry caused by rising output of shale oil in North America, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, Assistant Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources for Petroleum Affairs, said at a news conference Sunday. The Kingdom needs to maintain its investments in new oil fields in order to retain its ability to boost oil production in the event of an emergency, he said. “We will continue to explore, we will continue to invest,” Prince Abdulaziz said, in response to a question about the impact of rising output of US shale oil. “Saudi Arabia has something that no other country in the world has, and that is excess capacity.” Saudi Arabia is producing about 9 million barrels a day of crude oil, having boosted output to near-record levels over the past 18 months to make up first for lower output in Libya and then for the impact of sanctions on Iran. But Saudi oil officials say the kingdom could produce as much as 12.5 million barrels a day, if required, and the state-owned oil giant Saudi Arabian Oil Co. has announced plans to invest $35 billion in oil production and development over the next five years. The price of oil rose Monday after a strong durable goods report in the US. Benchmark oil rose 25 cents to $96.13 a barrel in late morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, was down 27 cents to $113.01 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London. “Being a responsible producer we have to maintain that excess capacity,” the Prince said. Many forecasters expect demand for oil produced by Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting countries to drop this year as a result of rapid increases in North American shale-oil production. In the US alone, shale-oil production is expected to rise to around 5 million barrels a day by 2030, making the US largely self-sufficient in energy by that date, according to a recent study by BP plc. The International Energy Agency said last year that the US could overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's top oil producer by 2017. — SG/Agencies
