OPEC Officials Play Down Need for 2nd Output Hike

LONDON – Top OPEC officials played down suggestions that sustained high oil prices would trigger a release of further crude by the cartel in a matter of weeks, saying it was premature to assume prices would remain lofty even as crude hit a fresh intraday peak of $81.60 a barrel on Tuesday.

Exactly a week after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed to lift its output 2% by Nov. 1, the oil ministers of Qatar and Libya, plus officials attached to leading Persian Gulf oil producers, poured cold water on talk that a further production increase could come in 15-20 days if oil remained above $80 a barrel.
“It’s way too early to talk about more oil. There is no trend right now with $80 oil. Speculators are doing this. They are buying on refining problems in the U.S.,” Shokri Ghanem, head of Libya’s National Oil Co., told Dow Jones Newswires from Tripoli by telephone.

Speaking on the day U.S. light, sweet crude futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange powered to a new record of $81.60 a barrel – the highest nominal figure since the exchange rolled out crude futures trading in March 1983 – Ghanem said he knew of no plans for ministers to discuss by telephone or in person whether to add more oil production to world markets.

“There are no plans and there is no need to talk about this,” he said.

Schlumberger