Saudi Arabia is in talks with European refiners affected by the disruption in Libyan exports and is willing and able to plug any gaps in supply, senior Saudi sources said on Thursday. The sources said Saudi Arabia's available spare capacity included the kind of light, high-quality crude produced by Opec member Libya and that it could be shipped quickly to Europe with the help of a pipeline that crosses the kingdom.
World oil prices have surged towards $120 a barrel as unrest grips Libya and its crude buyers assess the scale of the disruption. Refineries in Europe import approximately 80 percent of Libya's roughly 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of exports, according to industry exports.
"We are in active talks with European refineries to find out what quality they want and we are ready to ship it as soon as they need it. This is the way buyers and sellers work. We need to find out what they want before we take any action," a senior Saudi source told Reuters. "Some Opec countries have started looking at ways to divert their crude to Europe."
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