The Shoura Council has urged the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources to study the extent of shale oil’s impact on the Kingdom’s oil revenues.

The 150-member consultative body made this call while reviewing the ministry’s annual report.

Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter and depends greatly on oil revenues for its development and welfare projects. In February, it produced 9.849 million barrels per day of crude, up from 9.767 mbd in January.

The Shoura call comes two months after Minister Ali Al-Naimi met with International Energy Agency Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven to discuss the effects of growing US shale oil production on global oil prices.

In a previous statement, Al-Naimi said the Kingdom welcomes the new source of energy to keep up with global demand.

The IEA says that as a result of new exploration technologies, the US will become the world’s largest oil producer by around 2020.

OPEC’s oil output fell last month to its lowest since December, a Reuters survey found. Saudi Arabia, industry sources say, boosted supply, as did Kuwait and the UAE.

IEA predicted earlier that global oil demand will increase more this year than previously forecast, and a ban on US crude exports may crimp output growth.

World consumption will climb by 1.3 million barrels a day, or 1.4 percent, to 92.5 million barrels a day, Paris-based IEA said in its recent Oil Market Report.

Higher forecasts for global fuel demand prompted the IEA to increase estimates for the amount of crude needed from OPEC.

OPEC’s 12 members, responsible for about 40 percent of global supplies, will need to provide an average of 29.4 million barrels a day in 2014, or about 200,000 a day more than the IEA had forecast in December.