WASHINGTON, 20 December 2003 — OPEC President Abdullah Al-Attiyah said on Thursday the Bush administration raised concerns with him that oil demand will be strong next year and “indirectly” asked the group not to cut output.
The question of whether the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will reduce oil production when it meets in February is attracting new attention as the US economy picks up steam amid a sharp decline in US crude stocks and high oil prices.
Attiyah, who is also Qatar’s oil minister, told reporters he met privately with US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham on the sidelines of a liquefied natural gas trade conference.
US crude oil traded at the New York Mercantile Exchange on Thursday briefly rose to $33.90 a barrel, the highest since mid-March, on new data showing American inventories of crude oil fell last week.
By the close of trading, crude oil for January delivery settled up 36 cents to $33.71 a barrel.
The Bush administration is concerned that higher prices would “negatively” affect US economic growth, Attiyah said. High oil prices could also become a politically sensitive issue in the 2004 US presidential election campaign.
Meanwhile, oil prices topped $31 per barrel in London yesterday for the first time since the war in Iraq, but quickly ran out of steam and fell into loss.
The price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for February delivery was down 15 cents per barrel at $30.65 in early afternoon trading in London.