Saudi Arabia plans oil output hike in October, November - Falih

Reuters  |  MOSCOW 

By Astakhova and Zhdannikov

told a conference in attended by Russian that the kingdom was in weekly communication with to stabilise global oil markets, which touched a four-year high above $85 a barrel this week.

have added a total of about 1 million bpd output in "recent weeks and months" and the global market was well supplied, the Saudi said, adding that had raised its to 10.7 million bpd in October.

Asked about surging oil prices, Falih said the current price "was not based on fiscal flows of supply and demand".

"This is created in financial markets," he said.

Benchmark Brent crude fell 12 cents to $84.68 a barrel at 1125 GMT, reversing an earlier gain.

Russian told reporters before the conference that the global had more or less stabilised but uncertainties remained that could push up prices, including factors such as U.S. sanctions on

reported on Wednesday that Falih and Novak had agreed at a series of meetings, held when crude prices were heading towards $80, to lift output from September through December.

The two struck a private deal in September to raise to cool prices and had informed the United States, which has been pushing for action by OPEC and other producers, four sources familiar with the plan told

The private pact was reached before a meeting of in

U.S. has blamed the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for high crude prices and demanded that the group boost output to bring down fuel costs before U.S. on Nov. 6.

planned to lift output by some 200,000 bpd to 300,000 bpd from September until the end of 2018 to help fill the gap left by lower Iranian output due to the sanctions, reported.

Russian reached a post-Soviet record high of 11.36 million bpd last month.

(Reporting by Astakhova, Zhdannikov and Vladimir Soldatkin; Writing by Andrey Kuzmin; Editing by and Edmund Blair)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Wed, October 03 2018. 19:54 IST