EMEA News
Saudi Arabia Wants "Significant Growth" in Oil Output This Year
Amin H. Nasser, the President and CEO of the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), Tuesday said the company was planning "significant growth" in output this year.
The news comes as output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) still looks to be near record levels, and the market is still considered by many analysts as being vastly oversupplied.
Nasser told reporters Tuesday that Saudi Aramco will boost capacity at its Shaybah oil field by 33 percent within "the next couple of weeks" to 1 million barrels a day, according to a report by Bloomberg.
"Even though it is challenging, it's still an opportunity for us to grow," he said.
The news comes as markets are only just beginning to digest last Saturday's ousting of Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi, previously known as the most powerful man in oil and Saudi Arabia's oil minister for over 20 years.
He was replaced by Khalid al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco, in a move seen as a hardening of the Kingdom's resolve in maintaining a fierce defence of market share, particularly against U.S. shale oil producers, at the expense of price.
With oil up over 1 percent in early trading, it remains to be seen if today's comments by Nasser will be enough to quell recent bullish sentiment.
Last month the market brushed aside the failure of the Doha output freeze talks, and Ship & Bunker data shows on Monday the IFO380 Average Global Bunker Price had risen some 12 percent since then.
