Saudi Arabia commits to meeting India''s future energy need

18 January 2007

The world's largest oil producer Saudi Arabia, today said that it would meet India's future incremental energy needs. "We are supplying about 500,000 barrels per day (of oil to India). "We stand ready and are committed to increasing those supplies (that) are needed in the years to come," Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia's oil minister said.

The oil minister also said that his country would raise oil production to meet rising global demand.

The commitment from al-Naimi came at the Petrotech conference in New Delhi today. He said that Saudi Arabia was looking beyond "short-term aberrations" in markets by carrying through an $80-billion programme to boost output and meet global demand.

The minister said that the investment was for capital projects aimed at increasing the supply of crude to world markets to relieve infrastructure bottlenecks.

He added that Saudi Arabia had rejected calls by fellow members such as Venezuela and Algeria for an emergency meeting to discuss a further cutback in output targets to stem price decline as his country had a significant stake in ensuring long-term market stability.

"The rise has been a wake-up call for the industry and for producers and consumers alike, who are now beginning to address the deliverability problem head-on," he said.