OPEC May Reject Calls for More Oil as Crude Rises Above $76

OPEC, the producer of 40 percent of the world’s oil, may reject consumer calls to increase supplies and lower prices from $76 a barrel on concern energy demand will falter as U.S. economic growth slows.

Oil ministers for Algeria, Iran, Libya, Qatar and Venezuela said in the past week they support keeping the quota at 25.845 million barrels a day until December. OPEC President Mohamed al- Hamli, who is also the United Arab Emirates oil minister, said yesterday markets are “adequately supplied.”
Members are pumping more than their agreement allows. The 10 members with quotas produced 26.71 million barrels a day last month, or about 860,000 barrels a day more than targeted, according to Bloomberg estimates.

“OPEC is already dealing with its dilemma by gradually leaking more oil onto the market,” said Adam Sieminski, Deutsche Bank’s chief energy economist in New York.

Iraq is allowed to export as much as possible to rebuild its oil industry after two wars. OPEC’s newest participant, Angola, hasn’t been assigned a limit. Crude output from all 12 OPEC members was 30.33 million barrels a day last month.

El-Badri said the 10 members with quotas have completed about 60 percent of their promised cutback and that any level above 65 percent would be “fine.” The organization hasn’t set an official price target since abandoning a $22- to $28-a-barrel range in 2003, following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Ramon Espinasa, the former chief economist at state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA, said OPEC members are content with prices and will seek a “low profile” meeting next week. He’s now an economist at the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington.

Bloomberg