KUWAIT CITY, 21 February 2006 — The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may have to trim its production in March if demand slackens, as it typically does in the second quarter, driving prices down, Kuwait’s energy minister said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters at Kuwait’s Parliament building, the nation’s energy chief and Oil Minister Ahmed Fahd said currently “the market was well-supplied (with crude) and we believe the second quarter (of 2006) will be oversupplied.”
Since demand usually drops during the second quarter of the year because of global seasonal changes, “we believe there will be about 1.2 million to 2-million barrels-per-day (bpd) in oversupply in the second quarter,” he said noting that the organization would monitor the market for changes ahead of its meeting scheduled for March 8 in Vienna.
Meanwhile, Oil prices jumped higher yesterday. In London trading, the price of Brent North Sea crude for April delivery surged $1.79 to $61.54 per barrel in electronic deals.
It had earlier hit an intra-day peak of $61.63. The New York oil market was shut yesterday for the Presidents’ Day public holiday in the United States. The US contract had closed at $59.65 on Friday.