JEDDAH, 1 March 2007 — Saudi Arabia’s oil output increased to 10.7 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of 2006, according to Abdullah Jumah, president and chief executive of Saudi Aramco.

“Among the company’s accomplishments in 2006 were the optimization of upstream operations and development and depletion strategies to meet crude demand and increase maximum sustained capacity to 10.7 million bpd,” he said.

Jumah made this comment while addressing a meeting of the executive committee of the company’s board of directors in Dhahran, the Saudi Press Agency said.

He described 2006 a year of outstanding accomplishments. “The company reacted rapidly to changes in global crude oil supply and demand during the year,” he said.

On the reserves side, the company exceeded its target of replacing liquid hydrocarbon production by more than six percent, with 3.6 billion barrels, and more than doubled its target for new gas reserves with 10.4 trillion standard cubic feet. Spelling out the major achievements, Jumah said the Haradh 300,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Arabian Light Crude Increment was completed five months ahead of schedule.