Well, Which Is It? Too Much Oil or Not Enough

After just reporting that it slashed production by 800,000 bopd in March, 2011, because the world is well-supplied with oil, Saudi Arabia now says it needs to pump more oil to meet global demand.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia needs to pump at least 9 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude for the next few years and is considering boosting capacity to meet rising demand, Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) said in a report citing Saudi sources this week.

By the way, if one reads the 1Q11 Schlumberger earnings conference call closely, the following quote from the linked article is very, very interesting (in light of what Schlumberger said in the conference call):

Saudi Arabia plans to bring in more rigs this year as it moves ahead with Moneefa, boosting rigs at its disposal by over a quarter.

Repeat, in case you missed it: "... boosting rigs by over a quarter."