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Saudi boost fails to halt oil's rise
20.05.08
Oil prices rose this morning as concerns over tight supplies overshadowed the impact of a move by oil kingpin Saudi Arabia to boost output, dealers said.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, was up 19 cents to $127.24 a barrel while London's Brent crude contract for June rose 29 cents to $125.35 after it hit a record $126.34 last Friday.
Saudi Arabia last week said it would increase oil output by 300,000 barrels per day to produce 9.45 million barrels per day by next month.
Traders were equally unmoved by a dramatic increase in the official size of Iraq's oil reserves, pushing them past Saudi Arabia's as the world's largest. Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Barham Salih, said new exploration showed his country had as much as 350 billion barrels, compared with Saudi Arabia's estimated 264 billion.
BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Total are all queuing for rights to exploit Iraqi reserves. Iraq currently pumps twomillion barrels of oil a day.
