Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has ordered a halt to oil exploration operations to save the hydrocarbon wealth in the world's top crude exporting nation for future generations, the official Saudi Press Agency, or SPA, reported late Saturday.
"I was heading a cabinet meeting and told them to pray to God the Almighty to give it a long life," King Abdullah told Saudi scholars studying in Washington, according to SPA.
"I told them that I have ordered a halt to all oil explorations so part of this wealth is left for our sons and successors God willing," he said.
A senior oil ministry official, who declined to be named, told Zawya Dow Jones the king's order wasn't an outright ban but rather meant future exploration activities should be carried out wisely.
Saudi Arabia, the largest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumped oil unchanged at 8.26 million barrels a day in June, a survey by Dow Jones Newswires showed Thursday. The kingdom is pumping about 209,000 barrels above its target.
The kingdom's recoverable crude oil and condensate reserves stood at 260.1 billion barrels at the end of 2009, the world's largest, according to state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co, or Aramco. The world's biggest oil company said in its 2009 annual review published in June that it discovered two fields--a non-associated gas field and an oil field--last year.
"Saudi Arabia will continue to maintain a strategically important balancing role in global oil markets and to provide adequate supply in line with the maintenance of its 12.5 million barrels of daily crude oil capacity," said John Sfakianakis, chief economist at Riyadh-based Banque Saudi Fransi-Credit Agricole.
"King Abdullah's message does not mean that Saudi Arabia is changing it's view of the country's global oil balancing role or its commitments but only that it should be mindful of its future usage," he said.