Saudi Arabia will probably have to sustain production above 10 million barrels a day for the longest period in more than 30 years as it meets the summer surge in domestic demand and compensates for production losses in Libya . The CHART OF THE DAY shows how, over the past half decade, Saudi Arabian crude oil burning for power generation expanded by an average of 500,000 barrels a day in the six months through August as people turned up their air conditioners. A repeat this year would eat up about 5 percent of the kingdom’s current output at a time when Libya, the holder of Africa ’s largest oil reserves, is all but offline. “The summer this year will pose the real challenge, particularly if most Libyan production remains offline,” Robin Mills, the head of consulting at Dubai-based Manaar Energy Consulting and Project Management, said in an interview. To […]