JEDDAH, 27 July 2003 — Saudi Arabia pledged Saturday to maintain stability in the world oil market by preserving a “reasonable” price and ensuring continued supplies. The assurance came at the end of a meeting of the Supreme Petroleum Council chaired by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard.
“The Council affirmed the continuity of the Kingdom’s moderate oil policy which is aimed at achieving stability in the oil market by taking into account the interests of producing and consuming countries,” the council’s Secretary-General Mutlab Al-Nafisah said in a statement.
This policy is aimed at promoting “global economic growth, achieving stability in crude supplies and maintaining prices at reasonable levels,” added the statement quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.
The Saudi statement comes a few days ahead of an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries on Thursday in Vienna to discuss prices, output quotas and Iraq.
Minister of Petroleum and Minerals Ali Al-Naimi said this week that Iraq’s return to the oil market would pose no problem to OPEC.
The Cyprus-based Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported Wednesday that Iraq’s Oil Ministry had finalized an “optimistic” plan to boost oil production to 1.5 million barrels per day by October, rising to 2.8 million by April 2004.
British oil major BP and Anglo-Dutch group Royal Dutch Shell confirmed Wednesday they had agreed to buy 10 million barrels of Iraqi crude each, the first long-term deal for Iraq’s oil since the end of the US-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein in April.
Naimi also said he was pleased at the situation on the world oil market, adding that so far 2003 has seen a “balanced oil market in which there has neither been a shortage nor excess in supplies.”
Saudi Arabia has also invited tenders for three giant natural gas exploration projects in the latest step in the reopening of its huge energy reserves to foreign firms at a meeting in London recently.
