Reuters reported that top oil exporter Saudi Arabia showed no sign of cutting back supply in June following last month's OPEC agreement to rein in production, instead raising output by 300,000 barrels per day from May to 10.1 million barrels per day.
An industry source said that after reducing output in May to 9.8 million bpd from April's 30 year high of 10.1 million barrels per day the world's largest oil exporter raised production again in June.
Internal demand for Saudi crude rises sharply in the hot summer months from June to August. Export volumes were not available. In addition to the 10.1 million barrels per day pumped from Saudi fields, the kingdom topped supplies up last month with about 200,000 bpd from storage.
OPEC ministers at a meeting in mid June said that they would adhere to a collective production limit of 30 million barrels per day implying a 1.6 million barrels per day cut from actual supply of 31.5 million and Saudi Arabia was expected to make a sizeable contribution to that cut.
The 12 member group's collective output remained close to its highest levels since early 2008 in June, driven by strong Saudi and Iraqi output. A big drop in supplies was seen from Iran as the European Union embargo that took effect on July 1st 2012 further limited the Islamic republic's production.
Brent crude rose to near USD 99 per barrel recovering slightly from the previous session's fall ahead of US inventory data that is expected to show crude stocks shrank for a third week in the world's largest oil consumer.
