Business | Oil & Gas
Iran says Opec is not due to discuss output rise in Riyadh
Iran's Opec governor said Opec ministers were not due to discuss a possible output rise at a meeting this month in Saudi Arabia but the idea would be raised at a December meeting in the United Arab Emirates.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:34 November 12, 2007
Tehran: Iran's Opec governor said on Monday Opec ministers were not due to discuss a possible output rise at a meeting this month in Saudi Arabia but the idea would be raised at a December meeting in the United Arab Emirates.
Hossein Kazempour-Ardebili, in comments carried by the official IRNA news agency, was responding to remarks by Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi, who said on Sunday Opec would discuss an increase in oil output at an upcoming meeting.
Opec heads of state will meet in Riyadh on November 17-18 and consumer countries are urging the group to lift output to avert a supply crunch. The group's oil ministers hold their next formal conference on December 5 in Abu Dhabi.
Asked about the Saudi comments, Kazempour-Ardebili said: "The oil ministers of Opec member states are not due to discuss increasing oil production in Riyadh."
Clarification
"He [the Saudi minister] means Opec is due to discuss [this issue] in its December ... session."
Other officials from Opec countries have also said the group is not expected to make a formal decision on supply in Riyadh, where Saudi Arabia hosts the group's third heads of state summit and say they were likely to wait till Abu Dhabi. Iran has previously said there was enough oil in the market and has blamed the surge in oil prices, which have come close to reaching $100 a barrel this month, on other factors such as tensions in the Middle East.
Indonesia's Opec governor Maizar Rahman also said yesterday that the organisation is not due to consider an increase in oil output at a meeting in Saudi Arabia later this week. But the issue may be discussed at its policy meeting in December, he said.
"I think there will be no decision to increase supply in Riyadh. Because December 5 is already near," Rahman told Reuters in response to the statement by the Saudi minister.
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