Saudi king 'keeping some oil for future'
By Upstream staff
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah said he had ordered some new oil
discoveries left untapped to preserve oil wealth in the world's top
ex****ter for future generations, local media re****ted.
"I keep no secret from you that when there were some new finds, I told
them, 'no, leave it in the ground, with grace from god, our children
need it'," King Abdullah said in remarks made late on Saturday, the
official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) re****ted.
The US President George W. Bush in January urged the Saudi king to
help tame soaring prices by encouraging Opec to pump more oil. On
separate trips to Saudi Arabia this year, US Energy Secretary Sam
Bodman also asked for more oil, while the US Vice President Dick
Cheney discussed high prices with the king.
The kingdom has spent billions on building over 2 million billion
barrels per day of spare crude capacity and is the only country in the
world able to bring online large volumes of crude supply quickly to
deal with unexpected supply shortages, Reuters re****ted.
Opec held production steady at meetings in February and March despite
calls for more oil from the US and other consumers. Opec officials
blame the high price on factors beyond the group's control such as the
weak dollar, investment flows into commodities and speculation. Saudi
Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said last week that global oil markets were
well supplied and there was no need to put more oil on the market,
despite prices hitting a record of over $112 a barrel last week.
Saudi Arabia has trimmed its output to around 9 million bpd to reflect
lower customer demand, a Saudi oil source said on Friday. The kingdom
had in previous months pumped around 9.2 million bpd. Crude demand
traditionally dips at this time of year after the end of winter as
refiners carry out maintenance and prepare to meet summer demand,.
Saudi production capacity stands at around 11.3 million bpd, and is
scheduled to rise to 12. 5 million bpd next year.
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