Saudi Aramco 2011 Crude Output Tops 9Million bpd

According too Reuters, Saudi Aramco’s crude oil output in 2011 rose to 9.1m bpd from 7.9m a year earlier, the state oil firm said in an annual review released on Monday.

“In 2011, the company supported global energy security and petroleum market stability through the continuing reliability of its operations and its investment in significant spare production capacity,” Ali al-Naimi, Aramco’s chairman and the kingdom’s oil minister, said in the review.

“Historically, our spare capacity has been tapped to compensate for production disruptions and declining supply from other major suppliers, and is a cornerstone of the Kingdom’s forward-looking energy policy,” Naimi said.

Exports by Saudi Aramco, the oil company of the world’s largest oil exporter, jumped to 2.42bn barrels in 2011 from 2.02bn in 2010, it said, rising to 6.63m bpd from 5.5m.

Aramco said gas production averaged 9.9bn cubic ft per day in 2011 from 9.4bn in 2010.

Gas reserves rose to 282.6 trillion standard cubic ft from 279 trillion.

Saudi Arabia holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves.

Its proven conventional crude oil and condensate reserves, the world’s largest, slipped to 259.7bn barrels in 2011 from 260.1bn a year earlier, the review showed.