Saudis rule out cuts to oil output

OPEC’s top producer Saudi Arabia yesterday questioned the need for the cartel to bolster oil prices by cutting supply, saying the kingdom would keep crude output at current high levels as long as customers wanted it.

Nervous fellow OPEC oil producers arriving for Friday’s ministerial meeting have been sizing up how fast they should rein in a supply surge that has helped cut crude prices by a quarter in barely six weeks.

“The OPEC basket is still $33, the winter has not even started in the (US) northeast,” Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told a small group of reporters.