IEA Head Says Global Oil Market Supply Is Tightening

Sept. 6 (Bloomberg) — Supply in the world’s oil market is tightening, the new head of the International Energy Agency said in an interview, one day after he met with the secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

“The market situation is tightening, we know that,” Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the agency that advises 26 oil- consuming nations, said in Paris today. “The current level of spare capacity is very low.”

The IEA has previously urged OPEC not to restrict oil supplies. OPEC members, who pump about 40 percent of the world’s oil, meet on Sept. 11 in Vienna to review production targets.

Tanaka met with OPEC Secretary-General Abdalla El-Badri yesterday in Vienna. The IEA head declined to say whether OPEC oil production is enough, saying “the answer is in the market.”

Bloomberg