“Qatar is not cutting (oil output),” Oil Minister Mohammed Al-Sada said after a meeting in New Delhi when asked about the impact of increased Libya supplies.
“We are watching the oil market developments and coordinating with OPEC countries,” he added.
Libya is currently pumping around 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) but industry sources doubt it can quickly reach pre-war levels, which represented about 2 percent of the global demand.
Al-Sada said he was not expecting big changes at OPEC’s next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 14 in Vienna, echoing comments by Iraq’s deputy prime minister for energy, Hussain Al-Shahristani, earlier this week. “It is premature to judge, but I don’t think there will be a lot of surprises (at the December OPEC meeting),” he said.
“Things are in pretty good shape — supply, stocks and demand.”
Iraq has boosted its output to 2.9 million bpd this year.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE boosted output unilaterally after Iran, African countries and Venezuela blocked a proposal to increase output targets at OPEC’s last meeting on June 8.
Qatar was producing around 730,000 bpd of oil in July, official data released last month by the Joint Data Initiative (Jodi) showed.
Al-Sada said earlier this month in Tokyo that he saw no need for OPEC to meet before its scheduled December gathering but that it was monitoring markets closely.
Benchmark Brent crude oil prices fell more than $1 per barrel to $111 on Friday — but are still around $10 above levels when Al-Sada spoke in Tokyo — after gains earlier this week on a financial rescue plan for the euro zone.
Meanwhile, India is seeking an extra three million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year from Qatar for its Dahej plant and Dabhol project under long-term contracts, an industry source said.
Qatar, the world’s top LNG exporter, currently supplies 7.5 million tons of LNG a year to India under a long term contract.
“We want supplies to begin from 2013 in long-term deals of 20-25 years. Spot and short-term contracts we can manage,” the source said.
The Dahej plant, operated by state-owned by Petronet LNG, has capacity for 10 million tons per year and this should rise to 15 million tons per year by end-2015.
The Dabhol LNG terminal should be commissioned by March and will have capacity of 5 million tons per year. It will be operated by a venture of state-owned companies GAIL India and NTPC, a power producer.
India’s economy, growing at around eight percent per year, relies heavily on imports for its energy needs.
According to BP’s Energy Outlook 2030, India’s daily gas consumption in 2010 was estimated at 6.1 billion cubic feet (bcf) and is expected to exceed 15 bcf in 2030.
LNG currently accounts for a tiny amount of India’s energy needs, most of which are met by coal with oil covering about a quarter of demand — making the country Asia’s third-largest oil importer.
Its LNG import capacity should reach 47.5 million tons a year (mtpa) in 2015-16 from 13.5 mtpa currently as it seeks to diversify its import needs.
The south Asian country’s oil minister, S. Jaipal Reddy, said India had asked Qatar for extra LNG supplies but did not specify quantities.
“We did seek more supplies of both gas and oil. Discussions are going on. So far, they have been very favorable on cost,” Reddy told reporters after meeting Al-Sada, here.
An Indian government statement issued after the meeting said Qatar offered to supply liquefied petroleum gas and oil condensate to India.
India wants to secure long-term LNG deals to help cushion against global price volatility and to secure energy supply as it relies on imports for over 80 percent of oil needs.
Gas accounts for about 10 percent of India’s primary energy basket versus the world average of 24 percent
Industry executives have warned skyrocketing prices of LNG at above $16 per million British thermal units could soon cut into demand growth and delay import infrastructure projects in India and other Asian countries.
The visiting minister also said Qatar Petroleum International is considering buying the Asian Development Bank’s 5.2 percent stake in Petronet LNG.
