Saudi Says Markets Well Supplied as India Asks for More Oil
February 23, 2012, 6:45 PM ESTBy Rakteem Katakey and Ayesha Daya
(Updates with Indian request in first paragraph.)
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Oil markets are currently well supplied, Saudi Arabia’s deputy oil minister said. India wants 5 million metric tons more oil from Saudi Arabia next year, its junior oil minister said.
“The market is very much well supplied and there’s no need for concern,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told reporters today in New Delhi. “We have demonstrated to our friends here how much excess capacity there is today and how much capacity will be there in the future.”
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil supplier, is producing close to its record of about 10 million barrels a day as consumers of Iran’s oil look elsewhere for supply amid tightening U.S. and European sanctions. The kingdom is producing 9.8 million barrels a day, and has 2.5 million barrels a day of spare capacity, Prince Abdulaziz said.
India wants more Saudi oil to meet rising refinery capacity in 2013, R.P.N. Singh said.
“Whatever the Indian companies’ requirements are, they can approach Aramco,” Prince Abdulaziz said, referring to state- owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. “We don’t interfere. It’s a complete commercial decision.”
Saudi Arabia doesn’t “engage in any” discussions about replacing Iranian oil, he said. “We have never associated ourselves in any of those things. What we are concerned is to keep the market well supplied. That has always been our endeavor.”
--Editor: Rachel Graham
To contact the reporter on this story: Rakteem Katakey in New Delhi at rkatakey@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Chacko at jchacko@bloomberg.net
