Purnomo: OPEC eyes UN inspections results
Friday, November 29 2002 - 03:52 AM WIB
Results of U.N. weapon inspections in Iraq will be a factor in determining any change in crude output from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro told Dow Jones Newswires Thursday.
An upcoming OPEC meeting scheduled for Dec. 12 in Vienna will evaluate whether the current production ceiling should be maintained at 21.701 million barrels per day (BPD) over the first quarter of 2003.
"Let's assume there's no problems with Iraq. We cannot have overproduction from OPEC as well as high Russian output," Purnomo said in favor of maintaining the current output ceiling.
On a personal level, Purnomo said he "would like to see OPEC producers stick to (their) output quotas."
Overproduction by OPEC members was pegged at 2.73 million BPD, or 12% in October, according to the Middle East Economic Survey. Indonesia has little spare capacity to overproduce from its 1.125 million BPD quota. (*)