Kuwait raises oil output to 2.19 mm bpd

Jan. 8, 1998 Kuwait has raised oil output to its new OPEC quota of 2.19 mm bpd. Kuwait's previous quota was 2.0 mm bpd but has recently been producing at around 2.1 mm bpd.
The new quota was allocated to Kuwait in December at an OPEC conference in Jakarta that raised the group's overall output ceiling to 27.5 mm bpd for the first six months of 1998 from a long-ignored 25.033 mm bpd.
The increase takes OPEC's ceiling nearer to actual production in a move the cartel hoped would restore credibility to its leaky system of supply allocations.
Kuwait is one of only a handful of core OPEC Gulf member countries including Saudi Arabia that have the spare capacity to raise output. Much of Kuwait's crude is sold to Asia.
OPEC's biggest producer, Saudi Arabia, has the right under the OPEC accord to raise output to 8.76 mm bpd in January from its previous quota of 8.0 mm but has yet to make clear whether it will pump at that volume.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi has said that, while expecting to beable to produce at his new quota, the kingdom has no intention of pumping oil onto a saturated market.
"Saudi Arabia will not produce more than what the market needs," he said in December.