CERNOBBIO, Sept 3: Opec members could reschedule refinery maintenance or release products from commercial stocks to help ease supply problems caused by Hurricane Katrina, Acting Secretary-General
Adnan Shihab-Eldin said on Saturday.
“Some Opec countries that have export refineries, like Kuwait ... and others, are looking if they can help ... maybe by operating their refineries at full capacity, rescheduling their maintenance programme. If they have some products stored in commercial inventories that may be made available,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference in Italy.
“I know for sure Kuwait is looking at that ... I’m sure (Venezuela) is looking at what else they can do in this respect,” he added.
Opec said on Friday it was considering further measures to help ease problems caused by Hurricane Katrina, which hammered the US Gulf of Mexico coast on Monday, cutting out some 2 million barrels a day (bpd) of refining capacity there.
The group’s spare oil capacity is mostly of heavy, sour crude in Saudi Arabia, which is hard to process into the transport fuels that the US needs urgently.
Saudi Arabia has said it is willing to pump an extra 1.5 million bpd of crude but there seems little appetite for this at the moment. Opec’s president, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah has said he will propose a 500,000 bpd rise in supplies when the group meets on Sept. 19 in Vienna.
“The issue is not simply producing more, it’s producing more if there are people willing to take it,” Shihab-Eldin said. “The (Saudi) offer is already on the table, we haven’t seen signs that people are interested to take that.”
Shihab-Eldin added that there could be different crudes making up the possible 500,000 bpd increase.
“There are a number of countries that have 50,000 (bpd) other than Saudi Arabia, (countries) that have 50,000 barrels, 70,000 barrels, or they are planning to bring on line from their expansion of facilities ... that could go to contribute to this 500,000,” he said.—Reuters
