  |
OPEC set to maintain output: Gulf states
AFP
CARACAS
Petroleumworld.com 05 31 06The OPEC cartel of oil-producing nations is set to decide at talks this week to keep pumping crude at 25-year-high levels, delegates said Tuesday.
Asked if the 11-nation group would change its official production quota at Thursday's meeting here, Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah told reporters: "No, I don't think so.
"I think OPEC has nothing (to do) except to roll over (existing production) at this time," he said.
"I don't believe there is a shortage of oil at all. This is market-driven," al-Attiyah added, arguing that prices have been driven up by geopolitical tensions and by speculation.
"Hopefully the market will stabilise," the Qatari minister said, adding he was "very concerned" about prices that go too high or too low.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has an official production quota of 28 million barrels of day, its highest level in a quarter century.
Any cut to that level would likely drive oil prices to new highs above 70 dollars a barrel, and so risk choking off growth in major consumer nations such as the United States.
Kuwait's OPEC governor, Siham Abdulrazzak Razzouqi, agreed that the cartel was unlikely to change its output quotas.
"We will probably maintain production," she told reporters.
Iran's Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said Saturday that OPEC would not lower its output ceiling at the Caracas meeting, a news agency affiliated to the oil ministry reported.
"Given the current upward trend of global oil prices, it seems unlikely that any special decision will be made by OPEC to decrease the production ceiling," he said, according to the Shana news agency.
Vaziri-Hamaneh has repeatedly vowed that Iran will not use oil as a political weapon against Western nations despite rising tensions over its nuclear programme.
Venezuela, the only Latin American member of a group dominated by Middle Eastern producers, had been calling for the cartel to cut its total production quota.
But the Venezuelan energy minister, Rafael Ramirez, toned down his appeals Monday, calling instead for the cartel "at least to maintain" current levels of production even if global supplies are plentiful.
Ramirez added: "The threats to Iran affect the price level more than any decision we could adopt about the levels of production."
OPEC members argue that they are powerless to rein in a speculative frenzy resulting from the tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions and unrest in Nigeria.
They have repeatedly said it is up to the United States and other voracious consumers to boost their refining capacity to get more crude to customers in the form of gasoline (petrol) and heating oil.
But heading into its meeting in Venezuela, OPEC is under pressure from the Group of Seven club of rich nations to do more to limit the potential of a global slowdown caused by high oil prices.
However, acting OPEC secretary-general Mohammed Barkindo said Tuesday that the US and world economies show every sign of shrugging off the sky-high prices.
"There has been no significant evidence that these oil prices have an effect on growth," the Nigerian official told reporters in Caracas.
Barkindo said he agreed with calls for "world leaders to pay more attention to the fact that oil prices are to some degree influenced by geopolitical tensions".
AFP 30 2149 GMT 05 06
Copyright © 1994-2006 Agence France-Presse. All Rights Reserved.
Your
feedback is important to us!
We invite all our readers to share with us
their views and comments about this article.
Write to editor@petroleumworld.com
Any
question or suggestions, please write to:
editor@petroleumworld.com
Best
Viewed with IE
5.01+
Windows
NT 4.0, '95, '98 and ME +/ 800x600 pixels