Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said the country was raising oil production to record levels, signalling the country had “no intention” of using its power as the world’s largest crude exporter to push back against international pressure following the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Speaking after the kingdom raised the spectre last week of utilising the so-called oil weapon for the first time since the 1970s, Khalid al Falih said on Monday that the country’s oil output would increase to close to 11m barrels a day.
“Saudi Arabia is a very responsible country, for decades we used our oil policy as responsible economic tool and isolated it from politics,” Mr Falih said in an interview with Russia’s state-backed TASS news agency.