RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's view that $70 to $80 a barrel is a good price range for consumers and producers is still unchanged, and the country is not worried about a weaker US dollar, a senior oil official said Monday. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said in Singapore earlier this month that the crude oil price had found its comfort zone at $70-$90 a barrel, which consumers and producers all like. “Saudi Arabia still believes that $70 to $80 a barrel is good for consumers and producers,” the senior official, who asked not to be named, said. “The oil minister only said that some producers and consumers think $70 to $90 a barrels is a good range,” he said. In October, OPEC decided to keep its production quotas at the level they have been since December 2008. “The market fundamentals have not changed since OPEC last met in Vienna,” the official added. Moreover, Al-Naimi said the Kingdom has completed a gigantic hydrocarbon capacity expansion program involving investment of more than $100 billion and this will support global energy security. The program was part of overall plans OPEC and other producers to expand their sustainable output capacity to face world demand. At an energy conference in Singapore last week, he estimated producers need to pump nearly $26 trillion into the hydrocarbon sector over the next two decades to develop production capacity. “Resource stewards like Saudi Aramco, the Kingdom's oil enterprise, are expending funds to make additional supplies available,” he said in his address, published on Saudi Aramco's website Monday. “Last year, Saudi Aramco completed the largest capital program in company history at a cost exceeding $100 billion and spanning mega-projects in oil, gas, natural gas liquids, refining and petrochemicals,” he added. “The oil and gas components of this project slate have enabled the Kingdom to raise its maximum sustainable crude oil production capacity to 12.5 million barrels per day.....that is a capability unmatched in the industry. More importantly, that is good news for energy security.” Saudi Aramco said the largest hydrocarbon investment program in the Kingdom's history has added nearly 3.8 million bpd to the country's crude output capacity, including around two million bpd in 2009 alone. “In 2009, Saudi Aramco completed major work on the largest capital program in the company's history. The program, with a total investment of more than $100 billion, spanned the company's energy portfolio and included multiple mega-projects in oil, gas, natural gas liquids, refining and petrochemicals,” it said. “New and expanded hydrocarbon facilities were built by the company or its affiliates in Saudi Arabia and China, while work to expand a refinery in the United States was well under way by year's end. Key support facilities such as water injection and distribution networks were also expanded or upgraded.” The report said oil projects raised Saudi Aramco's sustainable crude output capacity to 12 million bpd, the highest in “our history and a capability unmatched by any other company in the petroleum industry”. The largest oil venture to be completed during the investment program was the Khurais project.
