VIENNA, 12 December 2002 — Petroleum and Minerals Minister Ali Al-Naimi said here yesterday he would ask OPEC to cut its oil output by 1.5 to two million barrels a day, confirming a statement made in Britain on Tuesday.
“Yes, it is true, and I have already said so,” the minister said the day before an extraordinary ministerial meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at its Vienna headquarters. On Tuesday an OPEC source in Vienna said that Saudi Arabia would ask its partners for an effective output cut, at the same time as asking it to lift official production limits.
The anonymous source said the Kingdom would propose increasing the organization’s production quotas by between one and 1.5 million barrels a day, at the same time as dropping its output by 1.5 to two million barrels a day. A Saudi oil official said here last Thursday that the Kingdom, the world’s biggest oil producer with an output of seven million barrels a day, plans to cut its own output by between 300,000 and 500,000 barrels a day. “If the current output level is maintained prices will fall below $20. Remember 1998,” he said. In 1998 crude prices fell below $20, and in March 1999 benchmark Brent North Sea Crude fell below $10.
OPEC is expected to lift official output quotas at its meeting today, at the same time as cutting production levels. OPEC, not including Iraq, exceeded its output limit by 2.4 million barrels a day in November,the International Energy Agency said yesterday.
Meanwhile, UAE Petroleum Minister Obaid ibn Saif Al-Nasseri said yesterday his country was “very much worried” by OPEC overproduction. (AFP)
