Naimi said that the Kingdom is currently producing 9 million barrels a day and it has a producing capacity of nearly 11 million barrels a day, adding that we have programs to raise the producing capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day by 2008 or 2009. On dealing with the situations in the oil market, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said that we perform our duty towards meeting the demand and that is our strategy. We always keep an additional capacity ranging from 1.5 to 2 million barrels per day to meet urgent demand as it was the case in the years 2003, 2004 and the events in the Gulf region. He stressed that oil producers do their own best to meet the demand. As regards the presence of the western companies and their participation in the oil investment in the Kingdom, he said these companies have been here for a long time working in support of gas and pipelines and many fields. In reply to another question on the number of the Kingdom's oil wells, the minister believed that there are more than 80 oil and gas fields, adding that we produce from less than 20 fields. --More 2254 Local Time 1954 GMT
