The kingdom told Opec that production was about 263,000 bpd higher than the previous month, when it had cut to well below what it had pledged in November to support a deal to curb the world oil glut.
In its monthly report, the Opec secretariat noted that there was a discrepancy between Saudi Arabia’s self-reported output and that by other sources, which is likely to fuel the debate about the signals the kingdom is trying to send to the market.
Opec said that "secondary sources", which is the official reference for its members in terms of the production targets they agreed last November, reported that Saudi Arabia pumped at 9.7 million bpd in February, or about 68,000 bpd below January.
The secondary sources is an average of guesses by consultants who track oil tankers on the water, news agencies which survey analysts and others.
Saudi Arabia and secondary sources were in close agreement about January’s output, which they put at 9.7 million bpd and 9.8 million bpd, respectively.
Saudi Arabia will be aware of the discrepancy in February’s number, which is thus likely to fuel the debate about how long the kingdom will bear more than its agreed load in terms of output restraint to support the world oil market.
Opec said that the producer group’s overall crude oil production decreased by 140,000 bpd last month, according to secondary sources, to average just below 32 million bpd.
It estimated that world oil supply decreased by 210,000 bpd month-on-month, to average nearly 96 million bpd, "yet surprisingly remained unchanged, year-on-year".

Source: The National