[NYTr] Opec To Keep Output Unchanged

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Al Jazeera English - Dec 5, 2007
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9F0DA4D9-C65C-4F36-A09A-24F9BAA2905A.htm


Opec to keep output unchanged

 The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) will not
increase oil supplies, Nigeria's oil minister has said, despite calls
from consumer countries for increasing output to control prices.

 Odein Ajumogobia also said on Wednesday that Opec will meet in late
January to review its decision before a scheduled meeting in March.

 Ministers from the 13-member organisation who met in Abu Dhabi
on Wednesday said they were already supplying enough crude oil to meet
the increased demand for winter fuel.

 "We've seen nothing yet to justify an increase or a decrease," Ali
al-Nuaimi, Saudi Arabia's oil minister, said.

 "Our position is that demand and supply are balanced and there
is no need to increase oil to the market," Gholamhossein Nozari, Iran's
oil minister, said.

Consumer concerns

Net import countries such as the United States have put pressure on
Opec to increase oil supplies to arrest steep price rises for crude oil.

Oil prices topped more than $99 a barrel on November 21, but have
reduced about $11 a barrel in the two weeks before Opec met.

The prices dropped amid expectations of increased oil output from the
United Arab Emirates, as well as reduced demand growth forecasts from
both Opec and the International Energy Agency.

A new US intelligence report that concluded Iran has halted its nuclear
weapons development programme in 2003 is also helping to prevent steep
oil price rises.

Prices increased by a dollar, to $89.32 a barrel, after the news that
there would be no increase in oil supplies.

Some Opec members share concerns of consumer countries about the impact
of high energy costs on economic growth, particularly as a US economic
slowdown threatens to hit the global economy.

Opec ministers say they cannot control prices because speculators have
separated prices from the fundamentals of the oil market.

Source: Agencies