VIENNA, 31 October 2003 — The Organization Petroleum Exporting Countries expects oil prices to be stable for the rest of the year but fears downward pressure on prices due to high supply in 2004, OPEC Secretary General Alvaro Silva-Calderon said here yesterday.
Silva-Calderon told a press conference that in regard to prices, “we expect stability for the rest of the year.”
An OPEC production cut of 900,000 barrels per day from its current quota is to take effect on Nov. 1.
Silva-Calderon said OPEC would evaluate how this affected oil prices in November before deciding at a meeting in Vienna in December whether to adjust the OPEC production quota further from its current level of 25.4 million barrels per day for the organization’s 11 nations.
Oil prices are currently at the high end of OPEC’s target range of $22-28 a barrel.
Oil prices dipped further yesterday in the wake of weekly data for US energy stockpiles that revealed bigger than expected inventories of crude and heating oil. The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in December fell 34 cents per barrel to $27.10, having dropped by around 60 cents the previous day. New York’s reference light sweet crude December contract showed a decline of 41 cents to $28.50 in morning trading.
