OPEC ponders surplus production

<a href=www.theage.com.au<theage.com.au Sunday 20 April 2003, 8:05 AM

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) must do something about the surplus two million barrels per day (bpd) that had come onto the market since the war in Iraq ended, the group's president said.

"There is a surplus of two million bpd that we have to deal with," Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah told reporters at the start of a visit to Oman.

He said OPEC's next meeting at its Vienna headquarters on Thursday, to discuss a possible output cut, would "examine the market situation and take the measures necessary to restore order".

"OPEC has done everything possible to maintain the balance between supply and demand, having increased its production to prevent any crisis," said Attiya, who is also Qatar's oil minister.

He was referring to the US-led war on Iraq launched on March 20, and prior to that ethnic unrest which cut Nigeria's oil output by around 200,000 barrels a day, as well as an opposition strike which battered Venezuela's petroleum industry.

OPEC, whose production ceiling is fixed at 24.5 million bpd for the member countries - except Iraq - said late in March it could announce at next week's meeting that it would reduce output by two million bpd. ©2003 AFP