Oil producers are likely to cut output by two million barrels per day (bpd) in an effort to strengthen prices, Kuwait's Oil Minister Saud Nasser al-Sabah said Wednesday.
"The overall cuts in crude production within OPEC and outside the organisation will probably amount to two million bpd," he said, quoted in the newspapers.
Sheikh Saud said the decision of Gulf Arab producers to curb production, announced at a Manama summit on Sunday, was adopted "at the right time, especially with prices going down and the summer season approaching".
Ahead of OPEC's next meeting in Vienna on January 17, Saudi Arabia has also called for the cartel's oil production to be slashed by between 1.5 million to two million bpd.
The aim is to stabilise prices at around $25 a barrel, a senior Saudi oil official told AFP at the Manama summit.
The oil price used by OPEC to help set production policy has remained below the organisation's $22-28 target band for over a week, its secretariat in Vienna said Tuesday, increasing the pressure to cut production.
The OPEC price, based on an average of seven crudes worldwide, stood at $21.75 last Friday, after falling below $22 the previous week for the first time in eight months.—AFP.
©--Agence France Presse.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
