State Department Seeks Crude Oil Output Boost

Washington - The State Department is making private appeals to members of the world oil cartel to increase crude production to offset a dwindling output from Venezuela.

Department spokesman Richard Boucher said several members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had been approached.

A boost in output "would be a positive development," he said.

Boucher did not identify which members of the cartel had been solicited in advance of an emergency meeting this weekend.

The oil-producing countries are expected to discuss boosting the cartel's production by up to 6.5 per cent.

Oil prices have surged in recent weeks amid concerns over deepening turmoil in Venezuela and a possible war against Iraq.

OPEC is weighing proposals to increase output by as much as 1.5 million barrels a day in an effort to subdue prices.

An increase in production would represent an abrupt reversal in OPEC policy. OPEC's 11 members decided less than a month ago to slash output by up to 1.7 million barrels a day in hope of preventing a price decline when seasonal demand dips this spring.

Ministers of all member countries except Algeria have agreed to meet Sunday at the group's headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

A month ago OPEC voted to cut production, and signs of a potential shortage surfaced.

Oil shipments from Venezuela, normally OPEC's third-largest producer, have dwindled by some 80 percent because of a month-old strike aimed at forcing the country's president, Hugo Chavez, from office. A U.S.-led attack on Iraq would halt exports from that country, which has the world's second-biggest crude reserves after Saudi Arabia.

In recent years, Venezuela has ranked fourth — behind Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Canada — as an oil source for the United States.

In 2001, 1.3 million barrels were imported daily from Venezuela, about 13 percent of U.S. imports, the Energy Department said.

A member of the worldwide oil cartel that sets oil prices and production, Venezuela's government-owned oil company also has one of the largest refining systems in the Western Hemisphere. Its gasoline is sold by Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Citgo, the Venezuelan company's U.S. refining and marketing subsidiary.