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JAKARTA, March 1: The president of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, on Monday said the cartel will automatically raise its output to pressure high world crude prices down.
Mr Yusgiantoro said the current price of Opec's crude reference basket stood at between $30 and $31 per barrel and that oil prices were currently past the $30 per barrel mark.
"It (the price) is above that, we will make an automatic production increase for a particular period. If the prices remain high, the production will be further increased," Yusgiantoro told journalists after meeting with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
He said the current production level and world oil prices will be soon reviewed and a decision on whether to raise production will be taken in two weeks or 20 days
Mr Yusgiantoro, who is also Indonesia's Energy and Mineral Resources Minister, said that Opec has no plan to convene in the near future any emergency meeting following the high world crude prices. "Opec is not planning an emergency meeting," he said.
ADEQUATE SUPPLIES: Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia vowed on Monday to ensure adequate oil supplies to maintain market stability but did not say if it wanted Opec to review a decision to cut output next month if prices remain high.
"It is extremely important that the international oil market, certainly the consuming countries, will always feel that the major producers are constantly in dialogue to make sure that supply is sufficient, that there are no shortages," Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi told reporters. "And it is extremely important that the market remains stable," he said after talks in Riyadh with Norwegian Oil and Energy Minister Einar Steensnaes, whose country is a non-Opec state and the world's third largest oil exporter.
"World economic growth depends on a very reliable supply of energy. And therefore here are two major producers that are looking and making sure that there are no shortages, or any curtailment to economic growth due to shortages," Mr Nuaimi added.
Asked about the chances of Opec reviewing its decision to cut output from April 1 at its next meeting at the end of this month, Nuaimi said: "I've always gone on record that I do not predict what we will do in the next meeting of Opec.
"Whatever I say now is invariably going to be wrong. So I am not going to say anything until the next meeting" on March 31 in Vienna. Opec decided on February 10 in Algiers to cut its combined output quota of 24.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by one million bpd from April 1.
In addition, production above this quota that had been stimulated by high demand and high prices is to be eliminated by the end of March, with the excess estimated at 1.5 million bpd, the 11-nation cartel said.
Nuaimi said the decision to slash output had been a "pre-emptive act" aimed at warding off "a glut and a precipitous fall in prices in the second quarter," when demand is expected to fall by up to four million bpd. -AFP
