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Cartel wants to be `fair': OPEC chief

"There has been no real shortage."

Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah, OPEC president

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) wants "fair" oil prices and will raise its output ceiling whenever it deems this will promote price stability, the cartel's president said in remarks delivered on his behalf yesterday.

"OPEC wants fair prices. High oil prices don't serve producers, especially OPEC members," Kuwait's Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah said in a keynote speech delivered at a three-day oil conference.

In his address, read by Talal al-Khaled al-Sabah, managing director for services at Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Sheikh Ahmad said past experience showed that rising prices eventually lead to a price crash.

"High oil prices which harm economies of the consumer countries do not serve the interests of producers, especially OPEC members. Past experience showed that spiraling oil prices will sooner or later lead to a price crash," he said.

"It is in the vital interest of OPEC members to maintain a healthy global demand for oil at fair prices so they do not negatively impact this demand," the OPEC chief said.

OPEC "will raise the ceiling whenever it deems that this serves stability ... We assure the market that we will do anything to restore stability to oil prices," Sheikh Ahmad said. "There has been no real shortage in crude supplies."

His remarks came five days after OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna said the cartel would provide an extra two million barrels per day (bpd) from October 1 if there is demand while maintaining its official production ceiling at 28 million bpd.

Sheikh Ahmad said OPEC was currently producing more than 30 million bpd.

The figure is well above the official ceiling but includes Iraq, which is not part of OPEC's quota system.

Sheikh Ahmad defended the producers' cartel, brushing aside accusations that they are the cause of soaring oil prices.

"The current surge in oil prices, contrary to past price shocks, has resulted from high world economic growth that boosted oil consumption and accelerated the demand," he said.

The Abu Dhabi conference is taking place under the theme "Gulf Oil and Gas: Ensuring Economic Security."

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Energy Minister Mohammed bin Dhaen al-Hamli told reporters after the opening session that his country planned to raise its production capacity by 200,000 bpd to 2.7 million bpd by the first quarter of next year.

"We will add 100,000 bpd in the fourth quarter and another 100,000 bpd in the first quarter of next year ... mainly from onshore oilfields," he said.

He said the UAE was producing around 2.5 million bpd but "if the market requires additional supplies, we will be very happy to add more."

Foreign and Gulf experts attending the conference will shed light on developments in international oil markets and their impact on the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, which pump some 20 percent of the world's output.

G7 nations, warning that high oil prices are a threat to global growth, agreed Friday to send a delegation to crude-producing nations and called for more investment in refineries.

Oil prices fell sharply on global markets before the weekend after Hurricane Rita weakened, easing fears about major damage to US refineries in Texas.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, fell US$2.31 to US$64.19 per barrel Friday.
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