Saudi Arabia to increase oil production

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Andrew Adams reportingSaudi Arabia says it will start turning out more oil. But what kind of impact will that have on prices? It's unclear.

The Saudis are upping production by 200,000 barrels a day through July. They increased output by 300,000 barrels a day in May and that had little impact on soaring oil prices.

Analyst Peter Beutel says the kingdom is afraid high prices will lead to the fast development of alternatives.

"That could end up hurting the Saudis, so they're very concerned about a lot of the implications of oil prices as high as we're seeing them right now," he said.

Saudi Arabia has also called for a meeting June 22 to discuss the current situation. OPEC has said it won't make any decisions on production until Sept. 9.

E-mail: aadams@ksl.com