June 1, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 4, 1427

CARACAS, May 31: Opec will likely maintain its oil output levels for now but should consider a cut by September, Venezuelan energy minister Rafael Ramirez said on Wednesday ahead of a cartel meeting here.

The host of Thursday’s meeting in the Venezuelan capital said that it was “too early” for the 11-nation Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to consider reducing oil output.

But the cartel of oil producers could decide on a cut “maybe from now until September”, Ramirez told reporters.

Qatar’s Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah declined to specify if an output cut at Opec’s next meeting, in Vienna on September 11, could be on the cards.

“We’ll see. We are very dynamic. We don’t love cuts. No one loves cuts,” he told reporters here.

“But now we don’t believe there is a reason for a cut. We have to wait and see and watch the market very carefully.”

The Opec members dominated by Saudi Arabia appear set to persist with their official production quota, which stands at a 25-year high of 28 million barrels a day.

But they argue that oil supplies are plentiful, and that crude prices have been driven to record highs by political tensions over Iran and Nigeria.—AFP