The UAE sees no need to cut oil production, the UAE’s oil minister said, after Gulf Opec ally Saudi Arabia slashed output in late 2012.

The world’s top oil exporter cut its crude production by around 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) over the last two months of 2012, pointing to low demand at home and abroad. 

The UAE produced around 2.60 million bpd (mbpd) of crude in December and November, down marginally from around 2.62 mbpd in October. But the UAE has enough customers to take all its current production and sees no pressing need to follow the Saudi cut. “No. At the moment we are just producing the way we are ... We are monitoring the market all the time, and right now the market is capable of taking all we produce,” Mohammed Al Hamli, the UAE oil minister, told journalists when asked if he saw the need to cut output. “The market is well balanced ... Well maybe it’s a little bit over supplied, but generally it is well supplied,” he said.

“World demand is still not in good shape. There will be an increase in demand (in 2013) but less than last year ... It really depends on how the crisis is handled.”

Saudi production of 9 mbpd in December was more than a million barrels below its peak production last summer, when the kingdom’s own oil use peaks as it generates electricity to meet soaring air conditioning demand.

The UAE produces nearly all of its electricity by burning gas, so its demand for oil is less seasonal than in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.