(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-09-11 04:58

VIENNA  - Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab states back a token rise in OPEC oil output in a gesture to consumer nations worried by the economic impact of $76 oil and rapidly diminishing stocks, an OPEC source said on Monday.

The source was speaking after an informal meeting of the oil ministers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Vienna and after U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman told reporters in Florida he had encouraged OPEC to hike production.

OPEC's 12 members will meet on Tuesday to set oil supplies for the peak winter demand season. An increase of 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) would placate consumer nations without flooding the market and causing a price collapse.

But such a plan may struggle to win support from members including Iran and Venezuela that take a more hawkish price view.

"They favour a small increase," the source said of the Gulf Arab states. "But if they meet stiff resistance, they may just drop the idea." The ministers themselves declined comment.

Libya was swift to voice its opposition.

"I don't think an increase is needed," said Shokri Ghanem, the head of Libya's OPEC delegation. "We think there is enough oil in the market," he added.

OPEC, pumping some 30 million barrels per day into the 86 million bpd global market, is trying to make sense of conflicting economic data ahead of Tuesday's meeting.

Industrialised consumer nations are forecasting their crude oil stocks will fall to the bottom of the five-year average range by January unless OPEC pumps more crude oil, and fast.

U.S. crude oil is above $76, close to its August 1 record high of $78.77 a barrel.

But uncertainty over the U.S. economy -- last month employers cut jobs for the first time in four years -- has cast doubt over oil demand growth in the world's top consumer.

The views of the Gulf states, particularly the world's biggest exporter Saudi Arabia, are key to OPEC policy decisions. They straddle more than half of OPEC's proven oil reserves and have almost all the organization's spare production capacity.