Saudis keep pumps primed

The kingdom is talking to other producers about curbing output, while doing its utmost to maximise its own

Saudi Arabia's record-busting oil production run won't have boosted its popularity ratings among Opec producers. But Aramco's strategists, believing global demand to be strong and still fretting about competition from Iran, Iraq and Russia, won't bother too much about that. It sets the ground for another tricky meeting of producers in Algiers on 27 September, when Opec and Russia might revive the freeze plan that collapsed in Doha in April. (You'll have read about the meeting on PE's website before receiving October's print magazine, which went to press before the powwow.) But Saudi Arabia's recent output surge might be as seasonal as it is strategic. Temperatures in the Arabian Peninsula we