Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has stated that the kingdom is on track to increase its oil production capacity by more than 1 million barrels per day to over 13 million barrels bpd by the end of 2026 or the start of 2027.
Prince Abdulaziz told an energy conference in Bahrain that “production could be maintained at that level once it was reached should market demand require it.”
The current production capacity of Saudi Arabia is 12 million bpd. The prince also said all upstream investments would be domestically focused to achieve that goal.
Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman Minister of Energy Saudi Arabia
“We have no money to waste on anywhere else. We are going to go to 13.2 to 13.3 [million bpd] subject to what we will do in the divided zone but most likely it will be 13.3 and 13.4 and that will be attended by the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027. We are improving [capacity] with our friends Kuwait. We are trying to first go back to old capacities. The world is running out of capacities at all levels. Supply chain issues are further exacerbating the impact and the energy sector is a global issue for the world to attend to. At a time like this, we need more excess capacity to give people the comfort that they can say that we have a contingency.”
On the Durra natural gas field, located in an energy-rich area shared with Kuwait, the minister said both countries were proceeding with its development.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait invited Iran in April to hold negotiations to determine the eastern limit of the joint offshore area and reaffirmed their right to develop the gas field located within it.
“We are proceeding with that field, we made a public statement encouraging Iran to come to the negotiating table,” Prince Abdulaziz added.
Further, the energy minister noted that the country’s power generation switch to gas and renewables will free 1 million bpd of oil for export. The country aims to become carbon neutral by 2060 and is increasing investments in the renewable energy sector.
