DUBAI, Oct 22: Opec moved swiftly at the weekend to dispel any notion of the cartel ditching its high oil price target, but seemed in no rush to slash output to defend its goal.

The 11-member producer group’s $22-$28 per barrel price band survived after Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez spooked oil dealers on Friday by saying that range could be eased to $18-$22 in light of the weak global economy.

The outspoken Venezuelan, who heads OPEC’s third biggest producer, swept through Opec’s two leading exporters, Saudi Arabia and Iran, on Saturday and Sunday and discussed strategies for propping up oil markets with his counterparts.

Oil prices have slumped 22 per cent since last month’s attacks on the United States, taking the Opec basket down to $19, as a sickly world economy takes its toll on fuel consumption.

But Chavez’ talk of giving up on the central $25 price for Opec oil seems to have been given short shrift by the leading Middle East Opec members.

I don’t think we need to change the band, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told Reuters on Sunday. Most of the OPEC members believe that it is a good range and we don’t want to change.

His view was backed elsewhere in the Gulf.

There doesn’t seem to be any real effort to change the existing range, a Gulf Arab source told Reuters on Sunday. It’s more a case of some ministers and other people expressing their opinion.

But declarations of support for the $22-$28 price target band have so far yielded little more than talk of cuts ahead of the group’s next ministerial meeting on November 14 in Vienna.

Consultations among OPEC nations and calls for supply curbs have intensified with the possibility often raised of an output cut of up to one million barrels per day (bpd).

Iraq, whose output is not bound by Opec because of United Nations sanctions, is pushing its call for an immediate million bpd reduction.

We are pressing for this cut to take place before November 14, Mus’ib al-Dujaili, Iraq’s Opec governor and adviser to Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed said on Sunday. We need an immediate reduction to shore up prices.

Kuwait said it stood ready to back any Opec move to hoist oil prices back into the lower half of the cartel’s band, or $22-$25.

Kuwait supports any direction by Opec member states to raise prices to the lower half of the price range, Oil Minister Adel al-Subaih told reporters on Saturday.

Subaih said last month that Kuwait could tolerate an Opec basket of $21-$22 given the economic and political climate.

But the Kuwaiti oil minister said falling oil prices since September were having a damaging impact on the economies of oil exporting nations which will without doubt lead to action to raise prices. He did not specify the action.

Opec, which controls two thirds of world exports, is struggling to combat the price decline amid fears that any further cuts may be negated by climbing output from countries outside the cartel such as Russia, Mexico and Norway.

To that end, the exporters’ cartel is stepping up efforts to enlist the help of big non-Opec producers in rescuing prices.

The possibility to co-operate (with non-Opec), either through persuading them to hold output steady or to cut is there it’s strong, said the Gulf source.

But observers see little prospect of that happening, especially with non-Opec Russia set for record high export levels this winter.

Opec’s consultations will focus on non-Opec’s Russia, Kazakstan, Angola and Oman, according to Gulf sources. It’s hoped that Norway and Mexico might also co-operate.

Russia is the real problem, said an Opec source. Moscow is telling Opec that it would reduce oil exports if OPEC states invested in its economy and helped increase domestic oil demand.

Experts from Opec and non-Opec will meet in Vienna on October 29 to discuss cooperation before ministers gather for a full conference on November 14.

It’s a dilemma because even if Opec cuts production, non-Opec production is set to go up, the Gulf source said. We can’t go in different directions.

Opec already has sliced output by 3.5 million bpd this year with official supplies for 10 countries of 23.2 million bpd, a third of world production.—Reuters