Saudi Arabia has accelerated its near-term production expansion plans and may add up to an additional 1.5 million barrels a day in crude output in 2010-2011 to mitigate potential supply disruption and meet growing global demand according to a new report published by a Riyadh-based government consultancy, Dow Jones Newswires reported on Thursday.
Nawaf Obaid, managing director of the Saudi National Security Assessment Project, said in a presentation given to U.S. federal energy, policy and security agencies that the kingdom plans to increase output capacity to as high as 13.5 million b/d by 2012.
The first phase, increasing production to 12.5 million b/d from current capacity of 11.3 million b/d has been placed on an accelerated timeline, while the second phase “is currently in preparation,” Obaid said.
“The goal is to minimize supply disruptions caused by domestic instability in Iraq and Nigeria, or by the use of oil as a political weapon, such as Venezuela and Iran,” he said.
Iran has warned the U.S. that it will use its crude production as a political weapon if the U.S. uses military force to resolve a dispute over the country’s nuclear program. So far U.S. officials, who fear the country wants to develop nuclear weapons, have tried to resolve the issue diplomatically.
(Dow Jones Newswires, 09/11/2006)