Saudi rules out oil output hike
Saudi Arabia's oil minister ruled out a hike in oil production in response to soaring prices at an OPEC meeting this weekend in an interview published Tuesday.
Ali al-Nuaimi told the Financial Times business daily that "there will be absolutely no discussion" of short-term supply at a November 17-18 Opec summit in Riyadh by heads of state or oil ministers.
The minister told the FT that the summit would instead focus on longer-term strategy.
He added, however, that Opec was "watching" the market carefully, and said that Saudi Arabia would "look at all the information available", leaving the door open to an increase in output at Opec's next meeting in Abu Dhabi on December 5.
Nuaimi cautioned that a decision on a production boost at the Abu Dhabi meeting was "premature", while insisting that Opec had "nothing to do with where the (oil) price is today."
"We have no interest whatsoever in seeing the world regress from its development" because of rising energy prices, he said.
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