VIENNA, 24 April 2003 — Wary of a worldwide glut of oil with the Iraq war over, OPEC is ready to cut production to keep prices in its target range of $22-28 a barrel, OPEC ministers said yesterday on arriving for a meeting here.

“Tomorrow we will make sure we keep the market where it is in the band,” Saudi Arabian Minister for Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi told journalists here, a day ahead of a meeting in the Austrian capital of the 11-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, without the participation of Iraq.

“We are concerned if we don’t take some steps that an oil glut may form in two, three months,” Al-Naimi said, with the possibility of Iraq resuming crude oil exports in the near future.

Qatar Oil Minister Abdullah ibn Hamad Al-Attiyah, who is the OPEC president, said he thought there was a surplus on the world market of more than two million barrels per day (bpd). He said the OPEC ministers would “discuss all scenarios” and that all options were open.

Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said OPEC would “talk about the discipline of production,” referring to members’ current quota-busting output.

It was not clear if OPEC would take any decisions today. An OPEC source said the meeting was being labeled a “consultative” one.

The ministers “don’t want to be under pressure to take any decision” and could postpone a decision until a regular meeting scheduled for June, the source said.

The source had said on Tuesday that the group was looking to cut production in order to keep oil prices from falling too far and would call on its members to respect the group’s 24.5 million bpd overall production quota, which is currently being exceeded by some two million bpd.

OPEC should move first by getting its members to respect the quota, United Arab Emirates (UAE) Oil Minister Obeid ibn Saif Al-Nasseri said yesterday.

The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for June delivery slid $1.11 per barrel to $24.35 in New York.

In London, Commerzbank analyst Jon Rigby said traders were trying to gauge what would be decided at the OPEC meeting.

Iraq was excluded from the OPEC quota system because of UN sanctions imposed on the country in the wake of its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.