Azerbaijan, Baku, March 14 / Trend, A.Taghiyeva /
Saudi Arabia will not be able to compensate for an oil shortage on world markets in the even tof strict sanctions against Iran, Al-Jazeera quoted the country's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, as saying on Wednesday.
"All the statements that Saudi Arabia increases oil supplies to compensate Iranian supply, are baseless," he said.
Al-Naimi said Saudi Arabia will not be able to supply this deficit, and does not pursue such goals.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia stated that in February it increased oil exports up to nine million barrels per day compared to 7.5 million barrels in late January.
Oil production reached about 11 million barrels per day with consumption in the domestic market at 2 million barrels per day.
Thus, the Saudi oil exports to Asian countries increased up to six million barrels per day, in the U.S. - 1.5 million barrels per day, which is a record number of oil exports to these countries over the past three years.
Riyadh has repeatedly stated that it is ready to fill oil shortage on the world market, which may arise in connection with the EU and U.S. sanctions against Iran's oil sector.