World's biggest oil producing company Saudi Aramco, said it could raise oil output capacity by 30 per cent in order to match global demand without financing from overseas producers.
"It costs us between $2,500 and $5,000 a barrel to develop an existing oil field, and these costs are unlikely to change for the next 10 years," Amin Nasser said, Aramco's chief petroleum engineer, in an interview in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The International Energy Agency have asked Saudi Arabia and other Middle East oil producers to open lands for drilling to meet an expected surge in energy demand.
Saudi Arabia can raise its limit by 3.2 million barrels of oil a day to more than 14 million barrels within two years to prevent a shortage, the country's oil minister, Ali al-Naimi said this month. The additional barrels could cost as much as US$16 billion to develop based on Aramco's cost figures.
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Saudis Ready To Match Demand
Saudi Aramco said it could raise oil output capacity by 30 per cent in order to match global demand