IEA, OPEC views differ over oil production
LONDON -- OPEC should think twice about cutting production to boost sagging oil prices because supplies remain short and the immediate outlook remains cloudy, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.
But OPEC's president, Abdullah Hamad bin al-Attiyah of Qatar, said Thursday in Paris that the world's oil markets are glutted, and the resumption of Iraqi oil production could make that worse.
Officials at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said Monday that oil ministers planned to meet April 24 in Vienna, Austria, whether or not the war in Iraq has ended.
Most OPEC members have been producing at maximum capacity to keep supplies plentiful during the war. Oil ministers, however, fear OPEC might be oversupplying the market just as demand starts falling to its seasonal low.
The Paris-based IEA, which represents the world's wealthiest countries, said stocks were low in member nations, and there were doubts about the export situations in Iraq, Nigeria and Venezuela.