PARIS - Saudi Arabia, facing mounting pressure from the U.S. and others to step up output of oil and gas amid a surge in prices, plans to more than double its investment in energy development to $50 billion in the next five years from the previous five-year period, Friday's Wall Street Journal reported.

Ali Naimi, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, also said the kingdom had tossed aside its production cap set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and is willing to sell its customers every barrel of oil they want, up to its current capacity of 11 million barrels a day. The planned increase in investment, Mr. Naimi said, would boost the kingdom's oil-pumping capacity to 12.5 million barrels a day by 2009, a target Mr. Naimi had previously disclosed. Saudi Arabia also has said it was studying longer-term plans for capacity increases to about 15 million barrels a day.

Mr. Naimi's disclosures about increased investment appear to be part of a campaign by Saudi Arabia, the world's top exporter and OPEC's de facto leader, to blunt criticism that the cartel is behind the recent rise in energy prices. His remarks come just as Saudi Arabia's effective ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah , is set to meet President Bush Monday in Texas.

Mr. Bush this week said he will warn the Crown Prince that the high price of crude is harming the world economy

High energy prices have contributed to slower global economic growth, and they have been burdensome for sluggish economies such as Germany and Japan, though energy prices aren't high enough yet to cause recession.

U.S. benchmark oil prices averaged $50 a barrel in the first quarter of this year, nearly twice the 2002 average of $26.10 . Thursday, benchmark light, sweet crude closed at $54.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 17 cents. The Nymex benchmark closed at a record $58.28 on April 4 .

Wall Street Journal Staff Reporters Bhushan Bahree and Neil King Jr. contributed to this article. Dow Jones Newswires 04-22-05 0027ET Copyright (C) 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.