The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries OPEC s
considering cutting its output target by 700,000 to 1.5 bmillion barrels a day, international news agencies reported on Wednesday.
According to Bridge News, OPEC source said Wednesday.
A source, from an OPEC country told Bridge that OPEC favors a deeper cut, said he expects compromise within that range. OPEC currently targets output of 25.2 million b/d.
Bridge also reported that on the informal record OPEC is expected to cut output between 0.5 million b/d and 1.0 million b/d, some delegates have indicated the cuts could be even higher.
Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Naimi said Wednesday OPEC would do its best to "arrest the decline" in the world economy, but Naimi did not make any comment on how much OPEC will reduce oil supply when ministers meet Friday, reported Dow Jones.
On the Saudi Minister comments Bridge reported that The minister did not make a direct comment on a question about Wednesday's decline of 70 cents in Brent benchmark crude, but said "this is a very serious matter, we are going to do our best to arrest the decline, but we have to take the whole economic situation into consideration."
Bridge also reported comments by Kuwaiti Oil Minister Adel al-Subaih said Wednesday that an OPEC production cut of more than 1 million barrels per day as suggest by some sources was "too much".
the minister said when asked whether Kuwait would accept a cut of more that 1 million bpd, as suggested by other OPEC members.
"There is no figure in mind, we are going to consult with our colleagues and we will come up with a figure, god willing," Subaih said, noting that any cut would aimed achieving a "fair price."
Platts reported that Iraq says wants OPEC to cut at least 1-mil b/d and that Venezuela is moving towards a crude output cut of 1-mil b/d.
Speaking to reporters in the Austrian capital, Silva noted that there was talk of a 1-mil b/d cut, and said "We are going in that direction."
Algerian oil minister Chakib Khelil said the largest possible size of any reduction would be 1.5-mil b/d. according to Platts.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
