Saudi Arabia and other moderate members of the Opec oil cartel are quietly increasing their production as oil prices flirt with $100 a barrel, the first sign that Riyadh is concerned about the impact of rising prices in global economic growth.
The International Energy Agency revealed the output rise on Tuesday, saying there was a “tacit recognition” by Saudi Arabia and others “of a need to adjust actual production levels to try to take some of the steam out of the market”.
In public, Opec officials maintain there is no need to increase output and Saudi oil officials have remained silent on the matter. But the western countries’ oil watchdog said Saudi Arabia “has been making more crude available to the market”, estimating the kingdom’s output last month at 8.6m barrels a day, the highest in two years.