Saudi Arabia's oil production in November will be below the average 9.08 million barrels a day that it pumped in October, a senior OPEC delegate said Wednesday, but it remains too early to gauge its output this month.
Speaking to Dow Jones Newswires ahead of an Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting in Cairo this week, the source familiar with the kingdom's oil policy said; "It was 9.08 million for October. It's too early to say what the number will be" in November.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed Oct. 19 to shore up oil prices at a time of swelling crude stocks across the world with a cut in output by members, excluding Iraq, of more than 4%, or 1.2 million barrels a day. The reduction, described as an interim measure, was to take effect from November.
Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Naimi signed up to cut the kingdom's output by 380,000 barrels a day to around 8.72 million barrels a day.
Ibrahim al-Muhanna, advisor to the Saudi oil ministry, told reporters at an industry conference in London recently that it will extend recently agreed oil output cuts into December in a move signaling that OPEC will tighten supplies as winter demand peaks: "We will pump at our new quota for both November and December", he said.
OPEC meets Dec. 14 in the Nigerian capital of Abuja and there is a chorus of ministerial voices favoring a further cut in members' oil production.
(Dow Jones Newswires)