Saudi Arabia Output Above OPEC Quota

Saudi Arabia Output Above OPEC Quota, Al-Naimi Says
By Maher Chmaytelli and Alexander Kwiatkowski
March 5
(Bloomberg)

Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, is producing above its OPEC quota because the market needs more crude, Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said.

Saudi Arabia is producing 9.2 million barrels a day of oil, al-Naimi said today in an interview in Vienna, where the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is meeting to decide production targets. Bloomberg calculates that Saudi Arabia has a production target of about 8.9 million barrels.

``That's what the market needs,'' he said.

OPEC will study the ``fundamentals'' when deciding what to do with production and customers aren't indicating that demand for oil is weakening, he said.

``Our aim is to keep supply and demand balanced with stocks standing at 5-year average,'' al-Naimi said. The Saudi minister earlier told al-Hayat newspaper that a change to production isn't justified because supply and demand are stable.

Al-Naimi said he wouldn't be ``surprised'' if OPEC held an emergency meeting before it meets again in September. ``The aim would be to ensure market balance,'' he said.

OPEC will leave production targets unchanged at today's meeting, according to 10 of the group's 13 members. Representatives including ministers from Iran, Venezuela and Algeria have told Bloomberg that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will hold output steady.