VINACHEM

Saudi state-owned oil and gas company Saudi Aramco announced on Tuesday it would maintain oil production capacity at 12 million barrels per day and will not increase it to a planned 13 million.

In March, the company said it planned to increase oil production to 13 million barrels per day by 2027.

"Aramco announces that it has received a directive from the Ministry of Energy to maintain its Maximum Sustainable Capacity (MSC) at 12 million barrels per day (MMBD), and not to continue increasing MSC to 13 MMBD," the oil giant said in a statement.

The company will update its capital expenditure forecasts when the 2023 financial results are released in March, it added.

In April, the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee announced that an additional voluntary reduction in the oil production in Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Oman, and Gabon would amount to 1.66 million barrels per day by the end of 2023.

In June, Russia said it would extend its voluntary production cut of 500,000 barrels per day until the end of 2024, while Saudi Arabia said it would make an extra 1 million barrels per day cut to its daily production from July, on top of a 500,000 barrels per day cut that was likewise extended through December 2024.