Saudi raises oil production in August

Saudi Arabia raised its oil production from 9.60 million barrels per day (bpd) in July to 9.76 million bpd in August but has not decided how much to pump after the restart of Libyan oilfields this week, a senior Gulf Opec delegate said on Monday.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said in early June the kingdom would produce all the oil needed after Opec talks over a coordinated output increase to make up for the shutdown of Libyan oil fields collapsed in Vienna.

Some Libyan oil fields restarted production this week after months of inactivity during the civil war. But Libyan exports are expected to take time to return to pre-war levels and the world's biggest oil exporter has not yet decided whether to alter its production, the senior Opec delegate said.

"It's too early to say how production will be affected. On many occasions countries like Kuwait and Venezuela have restarted their production without disturbance to the market," he said.

"As far as I can tell, Libya's production will come back gradually. If the market needs more supply we will step in... We still don't know what will happen, but demand might pick up during the fourth quarter as the winter starts."

On Monday Opec cut its forecast for global oil demand growth next year because of a worsening economic outlook.

Gulf Opec members the UAE and Kuwait August production was 2.6 million bpd and 2.8 million bpd respectively.