Report: Saudi Arabia Could Boost Its Oil Output Even Higher

Saudi Arabia's oil production in July of 10.67 million barrels per day marked the country's highest level in history. According to a report by

, the country is looking to boost its oil production even higher ahead of a key OPEC meeting. Reuters, citing a "source from outside OPEC," stated that Saudi Arabia is looking to boost its oil output as high as 10.8 to 10.9 million barrels per day. The increase in production may be consistent with the country's prior comments that it started hiking supply in July to meet rising seasonal domestic demand and global customers who are asking for incremental oil deliveries. Reuters' report comes at an inconvenient time for the oil market. OPEC nations will gather next month to revive talks on freezing output. Initial talks of a freeze in output began in January when Saudi Arabia was producing just 10.2 million barrels per day. Saudi Arabia refused to take part in any freeze unless its rival, Iran, agreed to do so as well. Iran wants to boost its output to capture lost sales over the years due to a trade embargo and refuses to accept a freeze until it reaches its pre-sanction level of 4 million barrels per day. The country now produces 3.850 million barrels per day, up from 3.37 million barrels per day in January. "It would therefore be a very hard sell for Saudi Arabia to have other countries join a collective action plan, while it is the main source of supply increase - outside of Iran post sanctions," Reuters quoted Olivier Jakob from Petromatrix as saying in a note.