ABU DHABI, 11 October 2004 — Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi said here yesterday that his country was ready to meet rising demand for crude to ease the surge in world prices. “My message to the world (is) there’s no shortage, there’ll be no shortage, and we are willing to meet demand as it rises,” he told reporters on the sidelines of an oil conference in the Emirati capital. “We are producing around 9.5” million barrels per day (mbpd), he said. “We plan to maintain spare capacity of 1.5 to two mbpd for the foreseeable future.” Naimi said his country was ready to pump an additional 500,000 bpd but there were no takers because of the quality. “We have 500,000 barrels a day extra capacity and we are ready to produce now but there are no buyers,” he said.
