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'OPEC to be flexible in Vienna'
Reuters
DUBAI
Petroleumworld.com 03 13 07Opec President Mohammed al-Hamli said on Monday the oil producer's group would be flexible at its meeting in Vienna this week and that oil stocks in the US, the world's biggest consumer, were still high.
"We are very flexible. We will look at fundamentals," Hamli, oil minister for the United Arab Emirates said in Dubai.Compliance was good among Opec members with 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) of cuts in output agreed last year, he said.
"We are having now a good compliance that puts pressure on the inventories to come down ... but it is still on average high," he said in response to a question about US inventories.
Hamli said that stockpiles of crude and products remained at around their highest level in five years. Oil demand in 2007 would be "robust", he said.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) meets on March 15 to set output for the coming months.
Remarks from Opec ministers so far indicate that the group wil leave its output unchanged at the Vienna meeting.
At its two previous meetings in October and December, Opec agreed cuts totalling 1.7 million bpd or roughly 6% of group output, including a 500 000 bpd installment effective from February 1 after oil prices slid from record highs above $78 a barrel last July.
Estimates from outside Opec indicate the group's members have so far cut supply by about 1 million bpd.
Industry sources said on Monday that the world's top oil exporter Saudi Arabia would cut its crude oil supply volumes to Asia for April by 2-3 percentage points from March.
The deeper cuts for April, which industry sources said could be a signal for better compliance with Opec's existing supply curbs and aimed at supporting oil prices, come as demand from Asian refiners is likely to fall in the second quarter.
In Riyadh, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi declined to talk to reporters about the Opec meeting.
Qatari Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said Opec should keep output steady at the meeting if prices remain as they are, adding that compliance with agreed Opec members was very good.
"They should do nothing if the price remains as it is. If there is a change dramatically..." he told Reuters in Dubai.
"The compliance is very good so far. We are checking the numbers. I think they will continue with it."
Reuters 12 03 07
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