Call it Saudi Arabia’s ‘Spinal Tap’ policy: Opec’s biggest exporter is showing the global crude oil market there is only one country capable of turning it up to 11. That is one interpretation of the message from Riyadh in Opec’s monthly oil market report released on Monday, with Saudi Arabia reporting its crude oil production hit a record 10.6m barrels a day in June, an increase of more than 200,000 b/d on the previous month. If Saudi Arabia keeps increasing production at the same rate the kingdom could be the first country to pump 11m b/d of crude since the former Soviet Union, at a time when the market remains heavily oversupplied in many industry observers’ views. The question for oil traders is if Saudi, like fictional band Spinal Tap with their amplifiers, will now use that extra notch on the dial for that (in this case the crude market rather than a rock anthem) “push over the cliff”.