and even surpass the taxes levied against coal, which has a much higher carbon content. EIA forecasts that over the next two decades or so, the global demand for oil will grow to over 120 million barrels per day. To reliably meet this growth and achieve a secure energy future, additional capacity must be developed in a timely manner. If that is to happen, discriminatory policies against oil must give way to enhanced producer-consumer dialogue, pragmatic energy policies, rational taxation schemes, and greater cooperation on cleaner and more efficient oil-based technologies. At Saudi Aramco, we're doing our part to ensure that oil supplies will be available when they're needed. We continue to identify new reserves through additional discoveries, enhanced recovery techniques, more accurate characterization of our reservoirs and a better understanding of their behavior over time. We are confident that we can extend that success well into the future given continued advances in exploration and production technologies and the fact that vast relatively unexplored areas exists in the Kingdom with potential hydrocarbons to be discovered. We are also committed to utilizing long-term reservoir management strategies and developing, procuring and applying state-of-the-art technologies that maximize recovery rates. We continue to develop production increments that will gradually raise Saudi Aramco's maximum sustained capacity, consistent with demand growth, beyond the current level of 10.5 million barrels per day. In fact, we have ambitious expansion plans to boost our capacity to 12 million barrels per day, and also have a long-term crude development scenario that would raise our production capacity to 15 million barrels a day. We are confident that we can maintain these production rates for about half a century. Just last year, we brought on-stream the half-a-million barrels per day Qatif field, and work is progressing rapidly on both the Abu Hadriyah-Al Fadhili-Khursaniyah development program and the Haradh increment. Meeting increased demand for oil is a challenge for our industry, but just as it has for nearly seven decades, Saudi Aramco is committed to playing its part in meeting this growing need for energy." --MORE 1404 Local Time 1104 GMT
