By Xinhua,
Madrid : Saudi Arabia’s oil chief reiterated on Monday that the world’s largest crude exporter is ready to raise its output again if there is demand in the markets.
“We can, we know it. We can pump 11 million (barrels a day) sustainably for a long, long time,” Ali Naimi told reporters when arriving here for the 19th World Petroleum Congress, the largest gathering of the oil sector in every three years.
“We will provide our customers with whatever they need,” he added.
As the international oil prices kept rising, which climbed above 143 U.S. dollars per barrel today, oil producing countries were under growing pressure from consuming nations to increase production in order to contain further rise.
At a global summit on oil prices in the country’s Red Sea city of Jeddah one week ago, Saudi Arabia, a leading member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) promised to raise its oil output by 200,000 barrels per day since July.
By then, Saudi Arabia will produce 9.7 million barrels per day, the highest level the kingdom has ever pumped.