OPEC delays oil expansion as income, demand fall: Badri

LONDON (Reuters) – OPEC members have delayed 35 oil projects to expand the group’s supply, its secretary general said on Monday, as oil’s record plunge reduces their revenues and the financial crisis erodes demand.

To help revive prices, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is willing to cut yet more oil output at a meeting in March, Abdullah al-Badri told reporters at a Chatham House energy conference.

Oil has fallen to $40 a barrel from a record near $150 in July as a deepening recession erodes demand for fuel. The decline “lost” OPEC $356 billion in income in the period from the peak in prices to last month, he said.

“Current prices threaten the very sustainability of planned investment,” Badri said in a speech. He told reporters earlier that of 150 projects due to come on line in the next few years, 35 had been set back to after 2013.

Reuters