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OPEC President Sheikh
Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah. OPEC will consider on Monday and Tuesday
whether to raise crude production by 500,000 barrels per day or
maintain its current quota, amid high prices which many blame on a
lack of refining capacity rather than a crude oil supply shortfall.
(AFP) |
OPEC oil producers on Sunday wavered over a supply increase that would
aim to allay
consumer country concerns about energy
security after Hurricane Katrina pushed crude over $70 a barrel.
Under pressure from importing nations, the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries begins a two-day meeting
on Monday that could lift output just as fuel demand starts to
buckle
under the impact of
high prices.
U.S. crude has fallen from a record $70.85 a
barrel in the three weeks since Katrina tore into U.S. Gulf refineries
, losing $1.75 on Friday to
close at $63.
"For OPEC the price is still very high," OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad
al-Sabah told reporters in Vienna.
He met on Sunday with European Union Energy Commissioner Andris
Piebalgs to stress that OPEC wanted to prevent inflated energy costs
slowing the global economy.
"We are trying our best to come up with a positive framework to
reassure markets about supply and to calm down prices which have started
to have a negative effect, even if slightly, on economic growth," the OPEC
president said.
Ministers are discussing raising output by 500,000
or 1 million barrels a day. But a third option was gaining ground
that would see production
left unchanged with a vow to release spare capacity when the market can
absorb it.
Some said they were reluctant to sanction additional crude when global
refining is too stretched to process more.
"The market should rest assured that whatever it needs is there. Before
that there is no need to do anything," said Nigerian Oil Minister Edmund
Daukoru.
(Agencies) | 
Updated: 2005-09-19 12:03
