AP
June 16, 2008
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia plans to increase its oil production by 200,000 barrels a day next month, the kingdom's oil minister yesterday told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Ban met with Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi in the port city of Jiddah during a one-day trip to the world's largest oil producer.
According to Ban spokesman Farhan Haq, Naimi said Saudi Arabia would increase oil production by 200,000 barrels a day from June to July. By July, production should be at 9.7 million barrels a day, Haq said.
"The king believes that the current oil prices [which topped $139 a barrel earlier this month] are abnormally high, and he is ready to restore prices to their appropriate levels," the official Saudi Press Agency quoted Ban as saying.
