Saudi Oil Min: Kingdom’s Current Oil Output 9.5 Mln B/D

Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Ali Naimi pledged Thursday that the Kingdom would lift its oil exports to meet near-term demand, adding the flood of investment in oil futures from banks and pension and hedge funds had sharply curbed OPEC’s ability to cool prices.

He replayed Saudi Arabia’s ability to spin open the spigots: “Saudi Arabia has increased its production to 9.5 million barrels a day, increased its production capacity to 11 million barrels a day and will increase to 12.5 million barrels a day by early 2009.