Saudi Arabia is putting its crude production capabilities – and its ability to balance the oil market – to the test. The kingdom finds its oil production policy at a crossroads, with the need to appease allies countered by its desire for higher prices to balance its books . Urged by US President Donald Trump to cool what was then a heating market, Saudi Arabia pledged June 23 along with the rest of OPEC, Russia and nine other non-OPEC partners to boost crude output by a collective 1 million b/d, in anticipation of supply shortages caused by US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela’s spiraling economic crisis. Even before the ink had dried on the vaguely worded OPEC deal — which spelled out no specific quotas — Saudi officials were letting it be known to analysts that the kingdom was ready to pump as much as 11 million b/d, which […]