April 11, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 4, 1429

PARIS, April 10: Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said oil markets were well-supplied and the world would continue to have enough fuel for its needs.

Naimi said high prices were unrelated to supply and the kingdom would continue to produce at a steady rate.

“I am not going to pull back. I’m not going to dump crude on the market,” Naimi told reporters at a conference in Paris.

He said the kingdom, the world’s biggest oil exporter, was pumping at 9.2 million barrels per day (bpd).

“In my perspective, the oil market is well-supplied. The price is not at that level because of any shortage in supply,” Naimi said.

Naimi’s comments were his first to the international press since the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) met in March when it left production policy unchanged.

Ministers from Opec will attend another industry gathering in Rome later this month, but so far are not expected to call a meeting there to review output policy.

Many say oil prices have been supported by decades of underinvestment in the oil industry.

Total Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie is among those who predict demand will exceed supply.

“Based on a very conservative scenario, we will need an extra 15 billion barrels of oil per day,” de Margerie told Thursday’s conference.

“This implies that from 85 million we would reach 100 million barrels per day. I don’t think this is feasible, certainly not in such a short period of time.”—Reuters