Saudi Arabia’s oil production has reached a record high of 10.3mn bpd in March 2015, surpassing its previous peak of 10.2mn bpd in August 2013
Saudi Arabia oil minister Ali al-Naimi said that the country will keep producing around 10mn bpd in near future.
The minister added, “The challenge is to restore the supply-demand balance and reach price stability. This requires the cooperation of non-OPEC major producers, just as it did in the 1998-1999 crisis.
“Some non-OPEC major producing countries said that they were unable or unwilling to participate in production cuts. For this reason, OPEC decided at its Nov 2014 meeting to maintain production levels and not to give up its market share in favour of others.”
The Saudi Arabia’s production figure also reflects some additional domestic refinery demand.
Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining, a joint venture between oil firm Saudi Aramco and China's Sinopec, has been steadily ramping up production this year and reached its full capacity in February 2015.
According to Joint Oil Data Initiative database, Saudi Arabian refineries ran a record 2.2mn bpd of crude in December 2014 up from 1.5mn bpd in 2012.
