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Qatar to cut January crude supplies by 5%
Qatar, one of Opec's smallest oil producers, told at least three Asian lifters it will cut crude supplies for January by 5 per cent, sources said yesterday after Kuwait and the UAE pledged to boost term sales.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:35 December 4, 2008
Singapore: Qatar, one of Opec's smallest oil producers, told at least three Asian lifters it will cut crude supplies for January by 5 per cent, sources said yesterday after Kuwait and the UAE pledged to boost term sales.
Abu Dhabi and Kuwait told many major term customers earlier this week that they would supply full contracted term volumes for January, compared with cuts in November and December, a move that seem-ed at odds with Opec's efforts to halt the slide in prices.
Qatar Petroleum had not informed lifters of supply cuts in the weeks following Opec's late October deal to cut production by 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) until this week, traders said, although its oil minister said last month in Tokyo that it was making visible cuts in supply.
"QP notified term lifters to cut Qatar Land and Qatar Marine allocations for Jan 2009 by 5 per cent," a source with a refiner said.
Three other lifters said they had yet to receive any notice for January, but some expressed unconcerned.
"We are not checking closely as we do not need that much," a trader with a second lifter said.
Qatar's Oil Minister, Abdullah Al Attiyah, told reporters on Wednesday that Opec will cut supplies at its next meeting in Algeria on December 17 as oil prices have fallen by more than $100 (Dh367) a barrel since July record peaks.
US crude oil futures fell $1.06 (Dh3.89) a barrel at $45.73 (Dh167.9) a barrel on Wednesday, nearing four-year lows on deepening economic woes that are now expected to lead to the first contraction in oil demand in a generation.
Opec ministers meeting in Egypt last weekend deferred a decision on whether to reduce supply further amid signs that Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours wanted tighter compliance with existing supply curbs.
Opec members cut only 66 per cent of the 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of a supply cut they had pledged in November, a Reuters survey showed.
Qatar told at least two lifters last month that it was not planning to cut crude supplies in the months of November and December.
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