LONDON: Production from Saudi Arabia is rising, and demand has pushed it up to about 10 million barrels per day (bpd), according to energy consultancy PIRA.

The estimate suggested the country is hewing tightly to the strategy of protecting market share rather than cutting production to try to inflate prices.

Saudi production averaged about 9.7 million bpd since last June, according to the consultancy.

“Additional demand has pushed output to just under, if not above, 10 MMB/D,” PIRA said in a weekly note.

The country’s rising production boosted OPEC’s oil supply in January, according to a Reuters survey earlier this month, a sign that key members are standing firm in refusing to prop up prices.

Oil prices fell by 60 percent between June and January, and have remained low as oversupply trumped concerns about supply disruptions. Output in Saudi Arabia has been flat to slightly higher, sources said.

The estimates from PIRA and the Reuters survey contrasted with data released on Wednesday from the Joint Organizations Data Initiative.

It showed that Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports dropped in December by 362,000 barrels per day to 6.934 million bpd from 7.296 million bpd in the previous month.

In December, the Kingdom maintained crude oil production little changed at 9.630 million bpd from 9.610 million bpd in November, data published by the Joint Organizations Data Initiative showed.

However, refiners processed 2.217 million bpd in December, up from 1.809 million bpd in November, the data showed.

Exports of oil products rose to 1.050 million bpd in December from 878,000 bpd in November. Saudi Aramco started in January exporting oil products from its newly launched Yasref refinery, which it shares with China’s Sinopec.

Oil prices remain highly volatile but have risen more than 35 percent since hitting an almost six-year low of $45.19 in January, in an ascent fueled by industry spending cutbacks and falling US rig counts.

Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi discussed last week “the relative improvement in the market in terms of an increase in demand and the stability of prices in the current period,” SPA reported.

In its last report, OPEC sharply raised a forecast of demand for its own oil in 2015, saying the halving in prices since June would slow production in the US and other countries faster than previously thought.