In the light of recent developments in the international oil market and the petroleum prices for the West Texas (WTI) crossing $50, Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, issued today the following statement: "Saudi Arabia is closely monitoring the various developments in the international petroleum market and seeks to stabilize the market and curb the escalation of prices that could be detrimental to the growth of global economy, particularly that of the developing countries." In this respect, he explained 'in its desire to make available adequate production capacity as soon as possible, Saudi Arabia will use Abu Sa'fah and Qatif fields, which are now on stream, to hike the Kingdom's production capacity to 11 million barrels per day (bpd) by intensifying well drilling in producing fields. Therefore, the Kingdom's surplus productive capacity will be 1.5 million barrels daily. Noting that the bulk of the new increment in the Kingdom's production will be in the light Arab oil. He concluded his statement by saying: 'the Kingdom, as we have declared on several occasions, is fully prepared and well equipped to meet the oil requirements of its customers for any additional quantities of oil. The Kingdom is also ready and capable of making up for production shortfall occurring anywhere in the world'.
