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US calls on OPEC to increase oil production
AFP
US Energy Secretary Samuel BodmanROME
Petroleumworld.com 11 14 07US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on Tuesday upped the pressure on OPEC to help cool record oil prices as leaders from member countries of the exporters' cartel prepare to meet at a rare summit.
Asked on the sidelines of an energy conference here if he wanted the 12-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase output, he replied: "Yes, sure."
"I do believe there is a lack of willingness to supply the market ... It is contributing to the price environment," he told reporters.
Oil prices had looked likely to break through 100 dollars per barrel last week but have since fallen after leading OPEC member Saudi Arabia, a close US ally, signalled its willingness to discuss a possible output hike.
The International Energy Agency, the rich world's energy watchdog, said earlier Tuesday that pressure on prices was easing but that additional supplies would be needed in the northern hemisphere winter.
"There are ... strong indications that high prices are depressing demand," the agency said in its monthly oil report, "which together with signs of higher output from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Nigeria, have capped further price gains."
Saudi Arabia sought on Tuesday to reassure oil consumers and calm markets, saying ahead of the summit that the cartel was able to meet demand and ruling out a shortage of crude.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi, speaking in Riyadh where the summit starts on Saturday, said fears of insufficient supplies were "groundless."
"I believe OPEC in general and Saudi Arabia in particular have demonstrated their ability to respond very quickly to any disruption (in supplies)," he said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, slumped 2.36 dollars to 92.26 dollars per barrel on Tuesday. Last Wednesday it had hit an historic peak of 98.62 dollars.
In London on Tuesday, Brent North Sea crude for December delivery shed 1.35 dollars to 90.63 dollars per barrel. At one point it fell under 90 dollars for the first time since November 1.
Leaders from OPEC countries are to meet this weekend in the capital of Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest crude producer, at only the third summit in the organisation's 47-year history.
OPEC produces about 40 percent of world crude supplies. It attempts to regulate prices by setting production limits for its members through a quota system.
At the last meeting of OPEC oil ministers, in Vienna in September, Saudi Arabia pushed through an increase in production despite opposition from the traditional price hawks Iran, Venezuela and Algeria.
The IEA acknowledged extra supplies from some OPEC members during October, but said more oil was needed.
"We're pleased to see that supplies are rising. We do think that we need more oil for the coming winter," IEA analyst David Fyfe told AFP.
OPEC leaders last met together in Caracas in 2000, the second such meeting after a 1975 summit in Algiers.
Story from AFP 13 1746 GMT 11 07
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