In an effort to soothe consumer nations as crude prices this week stormed to record levels, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz and Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi both promised that Riyadh was intent on securing price stability in comments made on September 5th and 6th.
The crown prince – speaking in New York on September 5th, before attending the U.N.’s Millennium summit that began on September 6th – said that: “Saudi Arabia has made every effort to keep equilibrium and price stability.” Although Abdullah stressed that the kingdom would work to maintain a price band that was fair for both producers and consumers, he did take a dig at Western nations, by saying that: “The role of consuming countries with high [energy] taxes should be reconsidered.”
Naimi, on his part, said on September 5th that he saw no difficulties in adding more oil into world markets. However, he stressed that: “Eventually people will realize that the [oil] industry is living with less inventories. Eventually a lot of this price is hype.”
On the morning of September 6th, the Saudi oil official declared that Riyadh has leaked an extra 600,000 b/d of crude into world markets since July, when Saudi Arabia first said that it wanted to see an increase in oil supplies of at least 500,000 b/d in an effort to cool off prices.
Naimi’s figure of 600,000 b/d contradicts recent reports that Saudi Arabia had only boosted its output by as much as 330,000 b/d since July. U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson reiterated on September 6th that he hoped OPEC would “seriously consider” increasing oil output when the group next meets on September 10th, but he refused to say whether Washington wants an increase of more than 500,000 b/d.
( oilnavigator )
