AFP – OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia will compensate for any shortage in global energy markets, its Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi told reporters Tuesday.
“We are ready to compensate for any shortfall in the oil market,” said Al-Naimi on the sidelines of a meeting with his Gulf counterparts in Riyadh.
Al-Naimi said, however, that “the market is good, reserves are excellent, and supplies are adequate and stable.”
He did not give figures for the kingdom’s production, which sources in the industry estimate are at 10m barrels per day, but said that “our production capacity is 12.5m bpd.”
The minister’s remarks come as global oil prices retreated on Tuesday with news of recovering output in Iraq and Libya.
Officials from Iraq, the second largest producer in oil cartel OPEC, were quoted on Monday as saying that the country had restored normal output after completing repair work on a pipeline leak.
In Libya, production resumed following a weeks-long blockade by guards at key Libyan oil terminals.
