Saudi Arabia can increase oil production by 1.5 million barrels a day to help ease rising world crude prices, the kingdom's visiting petroleum minister Ali Al-Naimi said Monday. "We can increase supply by 1.5 million barrels a day. It depends on demand," Naimi told reporters in Manila, where he is on a three-day visit to meet government officials including President Gloria Arroyo. The Saudi oil minister also dismissed market perceptions that oil supplies are limited: "There is plenty of supply. What we in Saudi Arabia want is to alleviate this unnecessary concern about shortage of supply."
Last Wednesday, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) raised production by 500,000 barrels per day, taking total output to 27.5 million bpd.
It has also said it could raise production by a further 500,000 bpd if required by the market while total output could increase to 30 million bpd in the fourth quarter of this year.
But in an Opec report released a day later, the 11-nation oil cartel warned that a shortage of refining capacity was also to blame for high oil prices.
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