Saudi Arabia's oil minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman reaffirmed today that the country's crude production has fully recovered from the drone and missile strikes on key infrastructure last month, and that output capacity is on course to return to pre-attack levels by the end of next month.
Riyadh lost 5.7mn b/d of output in the immediate aftermath of the 14 September attacks on the Abqaiq processing plant and the Khurais oil field, casting doubts over its ability to meet a stated October production target of 9.89mn b/d.
State-owned Saudi Aramco was forced to pull crude from its extensive inventories in the days after the attacks to compensate for the lost output. "In the beginning it was stock withdrawal… now it has been stabilised as production," Prince Abdulaziz said at Russia Energy Week in Moscow.
He reiterated that crude production capacity has reached 11.3mn b/d and is on track to return to the pre-attack level of 12mn b/d within two months, in line with a statement from the Saudi finance ministry earlier this week.
"We stabilised production capacity, we are at 11.3mn b/d and, as we said before, we will be back up and running [at 12mn b/d] by end of November," Prince Abdulaziz said. "But, I do not want people in the market to confuse that with wanting to produce 11.3mn b/d… we should have been producing 10.3mn b/d, we elected to cut below that," he said.
Saudi Arabia has committed to an output ceiling of 10.3mn b/d under a production restraint deal between Opec and its non-Opec partners, which is due to run until the end of March 2020. The country has produced below its quota every month this year, according to Argus estimates.
The speed of Saudi Arabia's stated production recovery continues to draw scepticism from some in the industry, given the scale of the damage caused by the attacks and the vital role Abqaiq plays in processing the country's light crude grades.
"If you believe us that is fine, if you do not believe us you are welcome to come and visit… we can get you a quick visa now," Prince Abdulaziz said.
