Saudi Arabia Defies OPEC and Raises Oil Output

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
NYT

In the wake of an unruly OPEC meeting, Saudi Arabia has decided to go it alone and raise production substantially in the coming weeks to meet rising global demand.

The Saudi newspaper Al-Hayat reported on Friday that oil officials there had decided to increase production to 10 million barrels a day in July, from 9.3 million barrels, with most of the additional output going to China and other growing Asian economies.

Saudi oil officials did not comment on the report, but the fact that they did not deny an article that appeared in the tightly controlled Saudi press was taken by analysts as confirmation.

The price of a barrel of light sweet crude dropped by nearly $2.50 to below $99.43 a barrel in Friday trading, returning to the level that existed before the OPEC meeting in Vienna this week that ended in disarray, with delegates refusing to raise official production levels.

(More here.)