PARIS, 10 July 2004 — OPEC will go ahead with a production increase of 500,000 barrels a day in August, Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi assured doubters yesterday, adding that at the end of this month the Kingdom would open facilities increasing output by 650,000 barrels per day.
Earlier OPEC President Purnomo Yusgiantoro had said in Jakarta that “OPEC still has a commitment to raise its quota by 500,000 barrels a day beginning in August.”
In London the price of Brent North Sea oil for August delivery fell by 31 cents a barrel to $37.46. New York’s light sweet crude for August delivery eased 27 cents to $40.06.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries decided in Beirut at the beginning of June, amid record high oil prices, to increase its overall production quotas from 23.5 million barrels per day to 25.5 million barrels per day on July 1 and by a further 500,000 barrels per day on Aug. 1.
Naimi told the newspaper Liberation two weeks before an OPEC meeting in Vienna on July 21: “These decisions are firm and irrevocable. They are being, and shall be, applied.”
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Saturday that the price of oil was “good” and that OPEC might delay the production increase planned for August.