As of 28 September, the US crude price passed the magical US$50 per barrel mark.
According to Purnomo, “I have not yet had any contact with OPEC’s 10 other members [but], at the moment, there’s nothing we can do. At the moment there’s nothing we can do. OPEC has spare capacity, [but], whatever we do there is no sensitivity in the market.”
“OPEC has the ability to add output. There is around 1.5 million bpd of spare capacity [and] Saudi Arabia has the capability [but] we are worried because there is an increase in the price of goods and services because of high oil prices.
“We are watching closely the price movement. If prices continue to go up, there will be a danger to the global economy. I warn that high oil prices will result in the start of a recession, there are already some indications in some industrialised countries,” added Purnomo without elaborating further.
On a separate note, Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco has announced it was in the late stages of planning to boost its daily production. It did not, however, say when the extra capacity would go online.
In a statement the state-run firm said, “Our long-term targets will depend on firm global levels of demand, but Saudi Aramco has the reserves and means to develop a higher capacity if the need arises.”
“It [is our] policy is keep a production cushion of 1.5 million to 2 million barrels per day of idle production capacity to absorb any sudden supply shortfalls or demand shocks [and], based on current trends, it is likely that Saudi Aramco will develop additional fields in the medium term to maintain the desired spare capacity.
“Aramco is already spending more to maintain output at fields already producing but, with current demand so high, [we] may delay retiring the older wells, causing a temporary spike in capacity above 11 million barrels per day,” it added.
Saudi Aramco has already added 650,000 bpd of new capacity from the Abu Safah and Qatif fields. According to tanker tracker Petrologistics, the state-run company is also already pumped 9.7 billion bpd so far this month, which is close to its current stated capacity of 10.5 million bpd.
