Reuters: Saudi Arabia may raise oil output

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The success of the OPEC negotiations that are to take place in the end of November in Vienna is now put under threat. According to Reuters’ sources in OPEC, Riyadh says Saudis could raise oil output steeply to bring prices down if Tehran refuses to limit its supply.

The relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran have been quite tense in recent years but after Saudis agreed to join the output freeze in order to settle global oil prices the tensions seemed to subside. But during last week’s meeting of OPEC members that was designed to work out the details of the deal before the ministers gather in the end of November the clashes between Iran and Saudi Arabia have resumed, Reuters reports citing its sources in OPEC who commented the meeting on condition of anonymity.

"The Saudis have threatened to raise their production to 11 million barrels per day and even 12 million bpd, bringing oil prices down, and to withdraw from the meeting," one OPEC source who attended the meeting told Reuters.

The ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries are to meet in the headquarters in Vienna November 30. It is expected that non-OPEC members may join the negotiations to limit total oil production.