The announcement is not expected to have an immediate impact on its production and crude exports, AFP notes.
Saudi Arabia has asked its national oil company, Aramco, to keep its maximum production capacity at 12 million barrels a day, abandoning a plan to increase output that had been announced in 2021, the oil giant said.
"Aramco announces that it has been instructed by the Ministry of Energy to maintain its maximum production capacity at 12 million barrels per day," instead of raising it to 13 million barrels per day as planned, the company said in a statement.
"The company will release its forecast for capital expenditure when it reports its 2023 annual results in March," he added.
A source familiar with the matter stressed to Reuters that this decision not to increase its maximum production capacity has nothing to do with technical issues and that the company is ready to increase it again if asked. The same source added that this move does not at all reflect any change in the scenarios for the future of oil demand.
Aramco is the world's largest exporter of crude oil.
The announcement is not expected to have an immediate impact on its production and crude exports, AFP notes.
Under the announced cuts from October 2022, Saudi Arabia's output is about nine million barrels per day, below its production capacity of 12 million barrels per day.
GA