Saudi Arabia ready to cover any global oil shortage

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will compensate for any shortage in global energy markets, Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi said.
“We are ready to compensate for any shortfall in the oil market,” said Al-Naimi on the sidelines of a meeting with his Gulf counterparts in Riyadh.
Al-Naimi said, however, that “the market is good, reserves are excellent, and supplies are adequate and stable.”
He did not give figures for the Kingdom’s production, which sources in the industry estimate at 10 million barrels per day, but said that “our production capacity is 12.5 million bpd.”
The minister’s remarks come as global oil prices retreated with news of recovering output in Iraq and Libya.
Officials from Iraq, the second largest producer in oil cartel OPEC, were earlier quoted as saying that the country had restored normal output after completing repair work on a pipeline leak.
In Libya, production resumed following a weeks-long blockade by guards at key Libyan oil terminals.
Brent crude peaked above $117 a barrel in August on fears the war in Syria would spiral out of control and hit Middle East oil output, but it has slowly unwound over $9 of risk premium as the chances of US military intervention and a wider conflict have receded.
Brent crude for November fell 24 cents to $107.92 a barrel by 1539 GMT, near its lowest for a week. November US crude lost 80 cents to $102.79 a barrel, Reuters reported
Brent’s premium to US crude widened by over 50 cents to $5.13, as the US benchmark took a steeper fall than Brent on prospects of declining demand from domestic refineries as prices for products such as US RBOB gasoline futures have dropped in recent weeks.
“The fall in RBOB has outpaced the fall in crude oil by quite a bit, so thatís necessarily going to get the attention of the refiners and induce a reaction which will likely take the form of a dialing back in crude oil demand,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York.
“Without that strong demand, WTI crude is going to get pressured.”