Saudi Arabia has announced it will increase its oil production capacity level to 13 million barrels a day, up from 10 million, after President Joe Biden's visit to the kingdom, but Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman insisted Saturday, in an address to the U.S.-Arab summit underway in Jeddah, that it will not be able to go any further than that.
“The kingdom has announced an increase in its production capacity level to 13 million barrels per day, after which the kingdom will not have any additional capacity to increase production,” bin Salman said, reports The National, a private English-language daily newspaper published in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
The announcement was also posted on Twitter by Fahad Nazer, the spokesman for the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C.
Earlier this year, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, the Saudi energy minister, said the country was on track to produce 13 million barrels a day by the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027, the publication reported.
However, the crown prince on Saturday called on unified efforts to support the global economy and warned that "adopting unrealistic policies" to reduce emissions will only lead to inflation.
"Adopting unrealistic policies to reduce emissions by excluding main sources of energy will lead in coming years to unprecedented inflation and an increase in energy prices and rising unemployment and a worsening of serious social and security problems," he told the conference.
Biden and leaders from the six Gulf Co-operation Council states, as well as Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq were at the conference, with the president holding bilateral talks with the Saudi leaders on Friday.
The crown prince's announcement, meanwhile, comes as Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said that oil was not discussed during a U.S.-Arab summit Saturday and that OPEC+ will continue to assess market conditions, reports Reuters.
However, he said there are discussions with the United States and consumer nations about crude going on all the time.
According to U.S. officials, Biden was to discuss energy security with the Gulf oil states while visiting the Middle East, but they said there would not likely be bilateral announcements coming from the talks.
The United States is seeking to have Saudi Arabia and its partners in OPEC pump more oil to help ease crude prices. OPEC+ members, including Russia, are scheduled to meet again on Aug. 3.
Saudi Arabia remains the top exporter of oil to the United States, representing 6% of crude imports and 5% of petroleum imports, reports Business Insider.
According to OPEC figures, Saudi Arabia produced around nine million barrels of oil a day in 2021, but it and other nations in the cartel cut production when demand fell during the COVID-19 pandemic while agreeing to boost production over several months. Oil is now trading below $100 a barrel, after spiking above $120 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The country possesses around 17% of the world’s proven petroleum reserves, and its natural resources also include natural gas, iron ore, gold, and copper, the OPEC report said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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