Saudi Arabia has the capacity to produce 12 million barrels a day (b/d) of crude oil, according to the CEO of state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser.

With the kingdom estimated to be producing about 10.09 million b/d, this capacity would give the world’s second largest crude producer a spare capacity of almost 2 million b/d.

Riyadh has ramped up production since the oil price began to collapse in the second half of 2014.

According to Opec estimates, Saudi Arabia produced an average of 10.12 million b/d in 2015 compared with 9.68 million b/d in 2014, hitting a peak of over 10.26 million b/d in the third quarter of last year.

Nasser revealed Aramco’s current capacity speaking at the Saudi Downstream conference in Al-Jubail on 8 March.

Saudi Arabia’s gas network now produces 12 billion cubic feet a day (cf/d) with plans to increase this to 23 billion cf/d, Nasser said.

Meanwhile the country is aiming to increase oil refining capacity to over 8 million b/d from today’s 5.4 million b/d.