Saudis pledge to pump more oil
A “hastily convened conference” in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the global oil squeeze ended with a Saudi pledge to increase daily oil production, said Carola Hoyos and Andrew England in the Financial Times. The increase of 200,000 barrels a day, due in July, will lift Saudi Arabia’s daily production to 9.7 million barrels, the highest level in three decades. “The kingdom also reiterated its promise” to further increase production over the long term. It is now aiming for 12.5 million barrels a day next year and an additional 2.5 million barrels “in around three years.”
The Saudis’ pledge didn’t impress the world’s oil markets, said BBCnews.com. Crude prices rose the day after the conference ended, settling at more than $136 a barrel in New York and London. “Without specific commitment from other members of the producers’ cartel, OPEC, to lift production,” most analysts were not expecting much of an impact on the global supply. Their pessimism deepened following attacks on oil-pumping facilities in Nigeria, where a militant group disabled an offshore rig, cutting Nigeria’s daily production to 1.5 million barrels from a maximum of 2.5 million barrels.
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