Iran says no need to change OPEC output
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Iran's envoy to Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said Sunday that there is no need for the organization to change output ceiling in the upcoming meeting in Vienna on March 17, the local satellite Press TV reported.
"There is no need to change the output ceiling in the next OPEC meeting," said Mohammad Ali Khatibi.
Khatibi said OPEC is likely to ask members to comply with their quotas until the global economic crisis is over, the report said.
"OPEC is expected to insist on the members' quota compliance in the next meeting," Khatibi was quoted as saying.
However, "if the current oil production continues, the oil market will face an oversupply in the second half of 2010," he said.
As the OPEC prepares to meet for the first time in three months, a debate is brewing within the 12-nation oil cartel over what its post-recession production might look like, an article posted on the Wall Street Journal website said Sunday.
Members such as Nigeria, Angola and Venezuela have indicated in the past weeks and months that they want higher targets within the group's quota system in order to accommodate new drilling projects that represent significant potential cash flow. Angola alone is expected to add around 100,000 barrels a day in production capacity this year, said the article.
Crude prices stayed above 82 U.S. dollars per barrel on the New York market on Thursday as investors digested economic data from the United States and China, the two major energy consumers in the world.
