Saudi Arabia may be willing to use less than half of its declared oil-producing spare capacity to make up for any possible supply shortfalls in Iraq, according to several Gulf officials, meaning its ability to act as a supplier of last resort could be restricted. The Gulf producer, the only country with a significant base of idle capacity, has often said it could ramp up its production to 12.5 million barrels a day in the event of unexpected disruption to oil supplies elsewhere. But Gulf oil officials say that pumping anywhere near that level and sustaining it is only possible on paper. “Saudi Arabia is now producing around 9.7 million barrels a day. Our best case scenario is seeing its output rising by another 1 million barrels a day or 1.3 million if the oil market is in a disastrous state,” one Gulf official at the Organization of the […]