Venezuela strike `should not lead to increased Opec output'

icwales.icnetwork.co.uk Jan 13 2003 The Western Mail - The National Newspaper Of Wales   OPEC needs to compensate for a shortfall in oil exports from Venezuela but it shouldn't change its output target of 23 million barrels a day, the group's most influential oil minister said yesterday.

An increase in the target "would really flood the market", Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Naimi said before an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna.

Opec called the meeting last week hoping to calm fears of supply problems caused by a strike in Venezuela begun on December 2 by political opponents seeking to oust President Hugo Chavez. The strike has slashed the country's exports by about 2m barrels a day. Venezuela is normally Opec's third-largest producer and a major oil supplier to the United States.

Opec pumps about a third of the world's crude supplies, which total 79m barrels a day.

Naimi acknowledged the Venezuelan strike has deprived the market of crude. "I care about what the market needs," he said.

But he added that Opec's production ceiling of 23m barrels a day should remain unchanged.

Crude prices surged in recent weeks but fell in anticipation of Opec's boosting production.