Iraqi oil minister says OPEC likely to cut production

Graphics shows the price of crude oil futures in the past 13 months. The price of light, sweet crude oil for March delivery rose 85 cents to settle at 41.17 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Feb. 5, 2009. (Xinhua/Meng Lijing)
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BAGHDAD, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- OPEC members are expected
to decide to cut oil production in March in an attempt to raise oil price to70
U.S. dollars a barrel, Iraqi Oil Minister said on Saturday.

"OPEC members will meet in March, and there is an
intention to decide further cut to raise prices," Hussein al-Shahristani told
reporters at a symposium on oil and gas industry development.

"We expect a cut that the crude prices will be more
than 70 dollars a barrel," Shahristani said in Baghdad's Rasheed Hotel.

However, Shahristani said that the raise of the oil price will be achieved gradually and not necessary in the coming months.

A petrol station in front of the OPEC headquarters is pictured in Vienna October 24, 2008. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)
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Shahristani also criticized the red tape in Iraq,
blaming it for the delay of efforts to boost the country's oil production.

He also hoped that Iraq could rapidly achieves oil
sector reconstruction and to form a national oil company, which can conclude oil
deals without waiting for cabinet approval.

Iraq is a member of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC). The organization is not bounding Iraq by its
production quotas because of the country's dilapidated oil infrastructure.

Iraq oil reserve is reportedly to be the world's
third-largest, which needs billions of dollars investment to overhaul its oil
industry infrastructure and increase oil and gas output after decades of wars
and sanctions.

OPEC weekly oil prices stand above $50

VIENNA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The weekly average prices of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) crude oil rebounded to 51.43 U.S. dollars per barrel last week, representing a rise of 0.09 dollars from the previous week, the Vienna-based cartel said Monday.

In the five trading days last week, the daily average oil prices were maintained at above 50 dollars, with the maximum fluctuation of 0.85 dollars, according to the data published by OPEC.

Analysts believed that the U.S. stock market continued to rise, the SP 500 index rose consecutively for six weeks, as the consumer confidence index from the University of Michigan in April reached the peak value since September 2008, which enhanced investors' confidence in the economic recovery and to some extent boosted the rebound of oil prices.

In addition, it was believed that the drop in OPEC crude oil supply also supported the oil prices.

OPEC has reduced its oil production by an overall 4.2 million barrels per day since last September in a bid to prevent the further drop of oil prices which peaked at 147 dollars per barrel in July 2008 and fluctuated this year between 40 and 50 dollars.

The current average OPEC oil export volume is 22.24 million barrels per day, representing a drop of 560,000 barrels from early April.

Nevertheless, some experts pointed out that the fact that U.S. crude oil inventories hit a new high of 19 years also could not be ignored. Before the high inventories decrease, the international crude oil prices will continue to maintain a concussion.

The oil minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Mohammed Al-Hamli, said Monday that the oil price of 50 dollars per barrel not only can promote the process of global economic recovery, but also create possibility for investment.

He also said that despite of the current low oil prices, the UAE would continue to expand the oil production capacity.

At the end of May, the OPEC oil ministerial conference will be held in Vienna to discuss the future oil production strategy.