UAE Committed To Supply Customers With Oil Needs

The United Arab Emirates’ OPEC Governor Ali al-Yabhouni said on Monday that the UAE was committed to supplying its customers with all their energy needs.

“Markets continue to show a degree of volatility that ignores the fundamental reality that producers still have enough spare capacity to satisfy all requirements. At the same time stocks are at a healthy level, showing that there is plenty of oil in the market and in storage.”

He also told the Gulf Intelligence Energy Markets Forum in Dubai: “The UAE is firmly committed to making its own contribution to market stability by ensuring that clients have all the oil that they require.”

He added, “Maintaining market stability is the responsibility of both consuming and producing countries.”

The UAE is the world’s third biggest oil exporter. Ali al-Naimi, Oil Minister of the world’s top exporter Saudi Arabia, expressed concern on Monday about high oil prices and said the kingdom would take steps to moderate them.

“The current high price of oil is simply not supported by market fundamentals,” Naimi said in a statement, which some in the oil market read as a signal to consumer nations that there is no need to release emergency oil reserves.

“Saudi Arabia will, as always, take all necessary steps to ensure the market is well supplied and to help moderate prices – and we will meet any additional demand from our customers,” he added.

Naimi’s comments came four days after U.S. administration officials met energy analysts in what was read by some as a sign that President Barack Obama is considering tapping U.S. government oil supplies in a bid to bring down fuel prices in the run up to the U.S. presidential elections in November.

The International Energy Agency, which coordinates oil stocks in the West, has been cool on the idea.