Saudi Arabia Minister of Petroleum Ali Naimi said Wednesday that the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries needs to look at data on
the global oil market to decide whether it needs to increase output
further.
"How many times do I have to say it? We need to look at the
data, then decide," Naimi said on the sidelines of the Middle East
& Asia Energy Summit in Singapore.
He said he was unaware of talk that OPEC is discussing an output increase of 750,000 barrels a day.
An OPEC official told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday that the cartel may increase production by that much.
Naimi reiterated that global oil inventories are at
comfortable levels above the five-year average, and there is a mismatch
between market fundamentals and oil prices.
He said Saudi Arabia has a spare capacity of 2.3 million
barrels a day, and this will be increased to 2.8 million barrels a day
by December.