Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi.
The world’s top petroleum exporter, Saudi Arabia, said on Sunday that it would not cut output to prop up oil markets even if nations outside OPEC did so, in one of the strongest signals that it planned to ride out the market’s biggest slump in years.
Referring to countries that are not members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Ali Al-Naimi, the oil minister of Saudi Arabia, told reporters: “If they want to cut production they are welcome. We are not going to cut, certainly Saudi Arabia is not going to cut.”
He added that he was “100 percent not pleased” with prices but said they would improve, although when was unclear.
He said speculators were responsible for the fall in prices to half their levels of six months ago and what he called a lack of cooperation from non-OPEC producers.
His remarks at a conference here in the capital of the United Arab Emirates were the second time in three days that the kingdom has signaled that it would not change output levels, preferring to allow the market to stabilize on its own.
His tone was echoed by some other Arab oil ministers at the conference.
The oil minister for the United Arab Emirates, Suhail Mohamed Faraj Al Mazrouei urged all producers not to raise their oil output next year, saying this would quickly steady prices.
The world is forecast to need less OPEC oil in 2015 because of a rising supply of shale oil from the United States and other competing sources, with no significant increase in world demand.
Ali Al-Omair, the oil minister of Kuwait said OPEC did not need to cut production and would not hold an emergency meeting before its next scheduled talks in June.
At its meeting, OPEC maintained its target output of 30 million barrels a day, leaving the market to balance itself without the group’s intervention.
That stance was seen as a shift from a longstanding policy in which OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia has acted as a swing supplier.
Asked about possible cooperation among OPEC members, which include the world’s lowest-cost producers, and nonmember countries, Mr. Naimi said, “The best thing for everybody is to let the most efficient producers produce.”
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