No turning back on a more inclusive Saudi Arabia: Princess Reema

The coronavirus pandemic has sickened more than 2,425,000 people, according to official counts. So far at least 164,000 people have died, and the virus has been detected in at least 177 countries, as the following table shows.

Mar 11: Energy giant Saudi Aramco on Wednesday said it plans to raise its crude production capacity by one million barrels per day to 13 million bpd as a price war with Russia intensifies.

"Saudi Aramco announces that it received a directive from the ministry of energy to increase its maximum sustainable capacity from 12 million bpd to 13 million bpd," the company said in a statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange.

The decision comes a day after the world's top exporter, Saudi Arabia, decided to hike production by at least 2.5 million bpd to a record 12.3 million from April.

The Saudi moves come after the collapse of an oil production reduction agreement between OPEC and non-OPEC producers, including Russia.

The deal proposed by Saudi Arabia called for additional output cuts of 1.5 million bpd to cope with the severe economic impact of the coronavirus which has sharply reduced world demand for crude.

Boosting production capacity normally takes a long time and requires billions of dollars of investment.

Several years ago, the kingdom had shelved plans to boost its crude production capacity beyond 12 million bpd after demand for OPEC oil declined in the face of stiff competition from North American shale oil and other sources.

Russia on Tuesday said it was open to renewing cooperation with the OPEC cartel even as its kingpin Saudi Arabia escalated a price war with Moscow by announcing it would flood markets with new supplies.

The oil price war broke out after OPEC and a group of non-member countries dominated by Russia -- the world's second largest producer -- on Friday failed to agree on production cuts.

Saudi Arabia responded by announcing unilateral price cuts. This prompted the oil price to plummet and fuelled huge falls on stock markets around the world on Monday.

New Delhi, Jun 18: With the highest single-day increase of 12,881 COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's coronavirus count has reached 3,66,946 on Thursday.

This includes 1,60,384 active cases and 1,94,325 cured, discharged and migrated patients, according to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.

Meanwhile, with 334 deaths being reported due to the infection, the toll due to the virus stands at 12,237 in the country.

There is a big increase in the number of confirmed cases in the country today as compared to the recent days when the spike had been limited to under 11,000 cases.

Maharashtra with 1,16,752 cases continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 51,935 active cases while 59,166 patients have been cured and discharged in the state so far. The toll due to COVID-19 stands at 5,651 in the state.

The number of confirmed cases in Tamil Nadu also crossed the 50 thousand mark on Thursday and reached 50,193. The national capital is the third-worst affected by the infection in the country with the count reaching 47,102 today.