Commercial Stocks Could Cover Potential Oil Shortage After Saudi Facilities Attack- Novak

Muhammad Irfan Published September 16, 2019 | 12:07 PM

Global commercial oil stocks could help cover a potential shortage that might happen over the recent attack on Saudi oil facilities, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th September, 2019) Global commercial oil stocks could help cover a potential shortage that might happen over the recent attack on Saudi oil facilities, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Monday.

In the early hours of Saturday, two Saudi Aramco refineries, in Abqaiq and Khurais, were attacked by drones. As a result, the output decreased by 5.7 million barrels of oil per day, which makes up more than half of the usual roughly 9.8 million barrels daily.

When asked if Russia had to boost production in this situation, the minister said it would depend on the assessment of losses currently being done in Saudi Arabia as "the scale of impact on output and supplies could be seen from that.

"But at the moment, there are enough commercial stocks in the world to cover oil shortage we see in medium term via commercial stock deliveries," Novak said.

He added that further decisions would depend on how long the impact of the infrastructure breakdown would be felt.