Saudi Oil Output at 22-Month Low

Saudi Arabia has reduced oil production to less than 10 million barrels a day, below its targeted level, and will consider renewing its pledge to cut crude output in six months, Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said.

The world’s biggest oil exporter is currently producing at a 22-month low. It had agreed to cut 486,000 barrels a day to 10.058 million barrels a day as part of a global deal to reduce output to curb a supply glut, Bloomberg reported.

The caps on production, together with rising demand and natural decreases in output in some countries, will help balance the market and support prices, Al-Falih said in a speech at an energy conference in Abu Dhabi.

“Oil production now is below 10 million so far,” he told reporters. “So, we are going the extra mile to lead our colleagues within and outside of OPEC to make sure that the market sees that there’s serious action in place.”

Saudi Arabia is due to meet fellow members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in May at their bi-annual meeting in Vienna to assess the market and the group’s production policy. OPEC states will also gather with major producers outside the group later this month in the Austrian capital to monitor their compliance with the production cuts, which aim at shoring up prices.

"We have been moving toward a rebalanced market for some time—too slowly to my liking,” Al-Falih said. “The pace of rebalancing will be accelerated due to the recent agreements within OPEC and with our party from outside” the group.