Saudi Energy Minister sits down with TIME
Evans/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

Saudi's Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman sat down with TIME to discuss the Kingdom's energy plans. In a wide-ranging conversation, the Prince discussed plans for the Kingdom to increase low-carbon investments, but also increase oil production capacity beyond 13mb/d (ARMCO) (NYSEARCA:USO). 

"We have been working on the circular carbon economy ... sequestering (carbon) is good .. if I can sell you the oil or gas that we have, and the carbon emissions will be handled, why should you confine yourself to a choice?"
"We believe oil consumption will continue to grow ... we have now come to the decision to go to 13 (mb/d of production capacity). That decision was actually made in March 2020, when we had negative prices."
"We see the numbers. They are not our numbers. They are the UN numbers. Three billion people lack any meaningful energy source, any clean energy, just for cooking. These people use biomass including cutting trees. Just to get through the day."

The Minister indicates that Saudi is targeting 13.5mb/d of production capacity by 2027, up from ~10mb/d of production currently. Given rig counts in the middle east
(NASDAQ:BKR) continue to sit near historic low levels, all eyes are on Saudi and OPEC peers for any indication of increased activity in the face of $90+ oil prices (NYSEARCA:XLE).