Saudi to achieve 12mpd in 2009
Posted:01 December 2008
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State-owned Saudi Aramco is on track to increase capacity to 12 million barrels per day (bpd) by mid 2009 said Khalid al-Falih, the companies new Chief Executive, last week.
"In the second half of 2009 Saudi Aramco will reach 12 million bpd of crude oil," Falih said. "If you add the capacity from the neutral zone shared with Kuwait the capacity will be 12.5 million bpd."
However, contrarian reports suggest that the Saudis will only be able to sustain the target at maximum capacity for a short period of time before scaling back the output.
However, a Saudi official said last week that the reports to the contrary were unfounded.
"This is sustainable for as long as the market needs it," he said. "We are on track to reach production capacity of 12.5 million bpd by the middle of next year and we will do it."
Businessweek, who issued diverging the report, stated that Saudi Aramco, which will hold 12 million bpd of the total Saudi output, would only be able to pump at full capacity for a short expanse of time before reducing levels to 10.4 million bpd.
In the future the Saudi government aims to increase output to over 15 million bpd and that the level could be achieved for up to thirty years.
The country is the only producer that can bring online significant additional output to cover an emergency in global supplies.
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