Saudi Arabia responded to ‘every single demand’ for oil: Al-Falih

Saudi Arabia has already raised oil production to a near-record level, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al-Falih said on Wednesday at the Russian Energy Week conference held in Moscow.

“We’re meeting every single demand for barrels,” Al-Falih said. “We’ve increased production quite significantly. We just have to be responsive to demand” because some would say the market is currently oversupplied, he said, as quoted by Bloomberg.

In response to a question about surging oil prices, Al-Falih added the current price is based on financial markets, not physical flows.

The Kingdom’s current output stands at nearly 10.7 million barrels per day (bpd). This is lower than the record set in November 2016, before the Kingdom and other oil producers—including Russia— signed an agreement to cut production to boost prices.

US President Donald Trump had earlier accused the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) of manipulating oil markets and piled pressure on Saudi Arabia to boost supplies and compensate for lower exports from Iran.

Last month, Saudi Arabia and Russia ruled out any immediate, additional increase in crude output, rebuffing Trump’s calls for action to cool the market.

US President Donald Trump had earlier asked the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Saudi Arabia to boost supplies to compensate for lower exports from Iran.