Key OPEC members on Monday said there was no need for the cartel to change its official oil output target owing to the current supply, demand and price situation amid a world economic recovery.
OPEC has no need to “disturb” a balanced oil market, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi told reporters ahead of the cartel’s latest meeting to set production levels.
Asked if OPEC should change its official output quota at a meeting in Vienna today, Nuaimi, whose country is the cartel’s biggest oil producer, said: “Why should we change? The market is in balance, the price is great, inventories are coming down, so why do we need to do anything?”
“Based on what we see, everybody’s happy with the market,” he said. “We are extremely happy with the market. The economy is doing well [and it] will do better down the road. I don’t see any reason to disturb this happy situation.”
The cartel’s second largest producer, Iran, meanwhile said OPEC should not raise its official output ceiling as there was still no sign of any increase in world demand.
“There is no increase in demand in the market and supplies have not decreased much,” Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi told reporters before heading to Vienna.
OPEC, which pumps about 40 percent of the world’s crude oil, has an official target level of 24.84 million barrels a day, but is producing more than this.
The head of Libya’s National Oil Company said his country would call on fellow OPEC members at this week’s meeting to comply with existing quotas.
“There is no need for a change” to the output ceiling, Libyan oil chief Shukri Ghanem said on his arrival at OPEC headquarters in Vienna.
“The market is over supplied. We are [instead] going to call for compliance,” he said.
Algerian Oil Minister Chakib Khelil said crude prices would “hold pretty well” until the end of this year.
Oil prices slid about US$1.50 on Monday, but remained close to US$80 a barrel — a level deemed reasonable by OPEC members.
Oil prices tumbled from historic highs of more than US$147 in July 2008 to about US$32 in December amid the global recession..
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