Saudis say oil relief remote

President Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah emerged from their meeting yesterday with no agreement that would lower gasoline prices in the near term, although Saudi Arabia reiterated plans to increase oil production capacity in coming years in an effort to meet fast-growing world demand.

In previous years, Saudi Arabia, which has about a quarter of the world’s oil reserves, had enough spare capacity to increase production significantly when demand spiked. But now the Saudis have little additional capacity, making oil markets jittery. Markets are concerned that a terrorist attack or other significant supply disruption could result in a shortage because of that lack of ability to make up for lost production.