Nigeria waits for stable prices

Abuja: Nigeria, the world's eighth biggest oil exporter, is waiting for oil prices to stabilise before deciding whether there is a need to adjust production, Oil Minister Odein Ajumogobia said.

Opec boosted output for the third consecutive month in July as prices peaked at over $147 a barrel but the price has since slipped more than $30 as record prices at the pump and the slowing US economy crimp demand.

Iran said last week that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) should trim output if demand goes on falling, while Venezuela has said it will propose a cut at the next Opec meeting in September if prices continue to fall.

"We are going through an unpredictable period so I think the best thing is to wait and see how it stabilises, that is our position," Ajumogobia told Reuters late on Wednesday.

"It is in the interest of both producing and consuming nations to have a stable price at a certain level... The market is adjusting itself to determine what that level is, once that level is established then the issue of a production cut or increase then can arise," he said in the capital, Abuja.

Opec supplies more than a third of the world's oil.

Ajumogobia said this month that Nigeria was producing around 1.8 million barrels per day as security concerns and militant attacks on oil facilities continue to plague its industry.

Kidnappings, pipeline bombings and oilfield raids in the Niger Delta, the hub of its oil sector, have slashed a fifth of production since early 2006.

President Umaru Yar'Adua took office more than a year ago pledging to address the root causes of the instability, but plans for a long-delayed peace summit have fallen into disarray and criminality in the region appears to be increasing.