VIENNA, 29 January 2006 — OPEC sees no need to adopt emergency measures for oil production due to the crisis between Iran and the Western powers over Tehran’s nuclear program, the oil organization’s president, Edmund Daukoru of Nigeria, said Saturday in Vienna.

“OPEC is not part of the misunderstanding between Iran and the Western democracies,” said Daukoru, who is Nigeria’s oil minister.

“I don’t want to treat the Iran case as some kind of emergency that would call for an emergency response,” he told reporters, adding that it was “an evolving situation” which the organization would monitor.

Daukoru was in the Austrian capital ahead of a meeting on Tuesday of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

A key issue in the talks between the 11 nations of the organization will be Iran’s call to cut production, currently fixed at 28 million barrels per day (bpd).

Most of the organization members and its president are opposed to that idea with oil prices over $67 per barrel, not far off the historic record of $70.85 per barrel reached in New York last August.

“Those arguing for a cut will have to defend their case and we will listen to each of them and reach a compromise,” Daukoru said.

Iran, the world’s fourth largest oil producer, has warned of higher oil prices and threatened to suspend exports if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), also meeting at its Vienna base on Thursday, refers Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.

But Tehran appears to be fairly isolated within OPEC, as more than half of its members want to maintain the status quo on production. “When we get to the point where Iran has to shut production, if they do, then we take it from there. We don’t want to speculate,” Daukoru said.

Acting OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo said Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that OPEC, which supplies more than a third of the world’s oil, would pump more oil if Iran cuts its output.

Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi said earlier this week that the world’s top oil exporter saw no reason to change current output levels.

Al-Naimi also said global oil prices have been rising because of political developments and lack of adequate refining capacity.