Saudi Arabia supports cutting the crude oil output
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil producer, yesterday backed an immediate production cut of 1m barrels a day as the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries indicated its determination to defend $60 as a new minimum international price.
Saudi backing for such a cut, and warnings that Opec should consider a second in December, pushed up oil prices sharply even before the cartel, which controls 40 per cent of the world's supplies, agreed a final declaration at yesterday's meeting in Qatar.
Opec oil ministers were last night still discussing the divisive issue of how to share the burden of cutting production and revenue. Nymex and Brent crude futures, the world's two benchmarks, both jumped almost a dollar as Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, made the kingdom's position clear.
He told reporters as he arrived in Doha; The price is determined by the market, what we try to do is to make the market balanced. Today there is a disequilibrium between supply and demand. Today we are trying to get the market to the normal equilibrium and the price will take care of itself.
He added; The possibility of another cut is there.
Vera de Ladoucette, an analyst at the consultancy Cambridge Energy Research Associates, said; Usually when the decision is taken it has already been priced into the market. But sometimes Opec can surprise.
Oil producers have watched with concern as crude oil inventories have grown, indicating that the market is oversupplied.
In the past week, US inventories of crude have risen by 5.1m barrels a day to levels 8 per cent above those of a year ago, according to data published on Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy. Despite its price concerns, however, Saudi Arabia does not want to return to being Opec's swing producer of oil, a role it played from 1980-86, when it cut supplies as oil prices fell.
Opec will therefore need to share the cuts and the subsequent revenue reductions among its members.
咨询机构——剑桥能源研究协会（Cambridge Energy Research Associates）分析师维拉o德拉杜塞特（Verade Ladoucette）表示：“通常当作出决定时，该决定已被市场消化。但有时欧佩克会出乎意料。”
对于原油库存的上升，产油国表示忧虑，因为这表明市场供应过剩。
美国能源情报署（Energy Information Administration）周三公布的数据显示，过去一周，美国原油存量每日上升510万桶，比去年同期水平高出8%.美国能源情报署是美国能源部（Department of Energy）的统计机构。不过，尽管沙特阿拉伯关心价格问题，但该国不希望重新成为欧佩克中负责调节产量的产油国，在1980年至1986年间，沙特就扮演了这种角色。当时，该国在油价下跌时，削减了供应量。
