Opec tipped to keep supplies unchanged at key oil meeting
OPEC will keep supply unchanged when it meets tomorrow in Angola, Algeria’s energy minister Chakib Khelil said yesterday.
“There will be no change in OPEC supply of crude oil. OPEC will not reduce supply and it will not increase supply,” Khelil told reporters. A meeting of the producer group on Tuesday in Luanda is widely expected to keep existing supply curbs in place because although oil inventories are very high, the oil price is also robust.
Oil on international futures markets has traded close to the $75 per barrel top exporter Saudi Arabia and others have said is fair to both consumers and producers.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has officially held supply targets steady since it agreed a record supply cut in December last year of 4.2m barrels per day (bpd). OPEC delivered about 80 per cent of those cuts earlier this year, but compliance has slipped to around 60 per cent as the oil price has recovered from a steep slide last year. Some have said tomorrow’s meeting could make the case for tighter compliance, while others have said OPEC might need to act to reduce excess supply early in 2010.