KHOBAR: Demand for extra oil supply following disruption to exports from OPEC member Libya has been met, Saudi Aramco CEO Khalid Al-Falih told reporters Monday. As a result, oil prices dropped with benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for April delivery losing 23 cents at $97.65 a barrel at midday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude fell 30 cents at $111.84 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. Both benchmarks posted their highest weekly close in two-and-a-half years last week. Al-Falih said he could not give exact figures because it was "a moving picture". "All incremental needs requested by our customers have been met," Falih said on the sidelines of a conference. "All incremental needs – and some – have been addressed immediately and you can verify it with customers." An industry source Friday said the top exporter's output had risen to more than 9 million barrels per day (bpd). However, Libya's de facto oil chief and head of the state-run National Oil Co. Shukri Ghanem, said Monday that production had been cut by around 50 percent. Violent protests have also erupted in small non-OPEC Gulf oil producer Oman and in Saudi Arabia's neighbor Bahrain. Saudi Arabia holds the bulk of OPEC's spare capacity, which can swiftly be added to the market in time of need. Earlier this year, before the latest supply increase, it said it had around 4 million bpd of spare capacity. Other Gulf producers Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are thought to hold around 1 million bpd of spare capacity between them. Oil prices fell in choppy trade Monday as reassurances from Saudi Arabia that extra supply needs could be met were tempered by Bank of America Merrill Lynch warning that Libyan output could be reduced for months. International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol told Reuters Insider TV industry reports indicated around half of Libya's production of 1.6 million barrels per day (bpd) had been cut, although other estimates had put the figure at three-quarters. Thorbj'rn Bak Jensen of Global Risk Management said the situation in the Middle East and North Africa remained on a knife-edge and the outlook for prices was extremely unclear.
