Al-Falih: Saudi Arabia will reduce oil production to near 9.8 mln bpd in March

Saudi Arabia will reduce oil production to almost 9.8 million barrels per day in March, the Kingdom’s energy minister Khalid al-Falih told the Financial Times.

He added that exports would also fall to near 6.9 million bpd, after they had been at 8.2 million bpd three months ago.

In January, al-Falih had said that Saudi Arabia went beyond its commitment to lower both the production and exports of oil over the last couple of months.

Responding to the market concerns about potential oil demand as producers try to reverse massive dips in price at the end of 2018, al-Falih assured that the oil market is on the right track and will soon return to its balance.

“If we look beyond the noise of weekly data and vibrations in the market, and the speculators’ herd-like behavior, I remain convinced that we are on the right track and that the oil market will quickly return to balance,” he said.

Al-Falih also told the newspaper that Saudi Arabia is planning to develop an international energy exploration and production business. He added that overseas expansion would be a core pillar of Aramco’s future.

“We are no longer going to be inward-looking and focused only on monetizing the kingdom’s resources,” the Financial Times reported Al-Falih as saying.

The minister said that they will focus efforts on creating a “global gas” business. The increased investment in gas comes as its growth of demand outpaces that for oil.