VIENNA, Oct 11: Opec is to hold “informal” meetings in Doha this weekend on oil prices and production levels, an Opec source said at the organization’s headquarters in Vienna.

Opec president Rilwanu Lukman of Nigeria, secretary general Alvaro Silva Calderon of Venezuela, and petroleum ministers Chakib Khelil of Algeria and Obeid Al-Nasseri of the United Arab Emirates would be meeting Saturday and Sunday on the sidelines of a gas conference in Doha, the source said.

“They will probably discuss the current state of the market even if Opec does not intend to increase production” despite the rise in the price of oil over the last few weeks, the source said.

Prices have risen due to concerns over oil shortages if the United States attacks Iraq, experts said.

The 11-member Opec dominates global oil production and has an important influence on the world’s oil prices.

Nigeria and Algeria have been calling on Opec for months to authorize production increases.

The International Energy Agency said in its monthly report published in Paris Friday that Opec had exceeded by 2.2m barrels a day its quotas for Sept.

In September in Osaka, Japan, Opec oil ministers had left their production ceiling of 21.7 million barrels a day unchanged and said they would re-examine the situation at a meeting on December 12 in Vienna.

The ministers said, however, that they would monitor the market and do what was necessary, “including calling a special meeting” if a key “basket” measure of oil prices failed to stay for 20 consecutive days within the Opec-defined range of $22-28.—AFP