CAIRO - OPEC on Saturday prepared to call for stricter adherence to existing oil output curbs before it considers a new supply cut to arrest a steep decline in world crude prices.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets on Saturday to review progess on output restraints agreed in the past two months that aim to remove 7 per cent of its supply from the world market.
Saudi targets return to US$75 oil price
CAIRO - SAUDI Arabia on Friday identified US$75 (S$113) a barrel as a fair price for oil, the first time in years the world's leading crude exporter has cited a price target.
Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said oil prices needed to return to US$75 to keep the more expensive new projects at the margins of world supply on track.
Leading producer Saudi Arabia wants to be sure that others in the 12-member cartel are sharing the burden of reductions before it agrees another cut. OPEC meets next in Algeria on Dec 17.
Saudi-owned Al-Hayat newspaper quoted an OPEC source as saying the group would not cut production at a meeting due to start at 3 pm (9pm Singapore time).
The Opec source said Saudi Arabia was fully in compliance with its share of the combined 2 million barrels a day (bpd) of cuts agreed in September and October.
A lack of compliance by some countries 'is having a negative effect on oil prices as figures show ... a need to withdraw 1.5 million to 2 million bpd from the market,' al-Hayat quoted the source saying.
Shokri Ghanem, Libya's top oil official, said: 'Compliance is less than we would like.'
US oil prices closed on Friday at US$54.43 (a barrel having slumped from a record $147 in July.
Evidence so far suggests good if not total compliance with last month's 1.5 million bpd cut effective from Nov 1, Opec's biggest one-time cut since the world economy last faltered in 2001.
Consultancy Petrologistics estimated last week that Opec output would fall by 1.22 million bpd in November.
But the Petrologistics figures showed that nearly half of that reduction had been shouldered by Saudi Arabia, whereas Riyadh accounts for only a third of Opec output.
Most Opec ministers have said they were likely to delay another reduction until they meet in Algeria in December, when they can better judge if all members have met previous commitments. -- REUTERS
