OPEC assesses member compliance with quota<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Organization of Petroleum Exporting
\nCountries (OPEC) held preliminary talks yesterday to assess the
\ncompliance of its members with production quotas amid heated
\ndiscussion over a proposed quota increase.<\/p>\n
The Ministerial Monitoring Subcommittee (MMC) which is charged
\nwith overseeing the compliance of member countries with their
\nrespective production quotas, met yesterday afternoon at
\nDharmawangsa Hotel in South Jakarta to compare each member's oil
\nproduction to its own output quota.<\/p>\n
The committee was made up of the ministers of three member
\ncountries -- Indonesia, Iran and Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Other OPEC member countries are Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya,
\nQatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.<\/p>\n
The OPEC governor for Indonesia, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, who was
\nalso present at the MMC meeting, said the data on the oil output
\nof the 11 member countries would be compared with the data
\nreleased by the six official OPEC monitoring agencies.<\/p>\n
\"By comparing the data, we shall arrive at quota figures for
\nnext year which would be recommended for OPEC,\" Purnomo said.<\/p>\n
According to Antara, the six monitoring agencies are the
\nEnergy Information Agency, the International Energy Agency, the
\nCenter for Global Energy Studies, Platt's, the Cambridge Energy
\nResearch Association and Petroleum International Weekly.<\/p>\n
The six agencies said that OPEC currently produced 27.85
\nmillion billion barrels per day (bpd), compared to its maximum
\nquota of 25.033 million bpd.<\/p>\n
Currently, Indonesia has a quota of 1.330 million bpd, Algeria
\n750,000 bpd, Iran 3.6 million bpd, Iraq 1.2 million bpd, Kuwait
\ntwo million bpd, Libya 1.39 bpd, Nigeria 1.865 bpd, Qatar 375,000
\nbpd, Saudi Arabia eight million bpd, the United Arab Emirates
\n1.161 million bpd, and Venezuela 2.359 million bpd.<\/p>\n
The 103rd OPEC ministerial conference is to open today and
\nwill last until Dec. 1 at Dharmawangsa Hotel.<\/p>\n
The conference will also discuss administration and finance,
\nthe restructuring of OPEC's organization, oil price development
\nand the oil production of member countries.<\/p>\n
The conference will elect a new OPEC secretary general for the
\nnext three-year term, a position which is currently held by
\nRilwanu Lukman from Nigeria.<\/p>\n
However, the conference is speculated to be preoccupied with
\nthe issue of a proposed quota increase which was raised by Saudi
\nArabia, the world's largest oil producer.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia has called on OPEC to increase its oil production
\nquota to more than 27 million bpd to anticipate the world's
\ngrowing demand for oil.<\/p>\n
The country said the world's crude oil demand would rise by
\nmore than 2.3 million bpd to 75.8 million bpd next year.<\/p>\n
Therefore, it argued that OPEC should take up at least 1.07
\nmillion bpd of the 2.3 million bpd additional demand.<\/p>\n
Most member countries, however, are refusing to raise the
\ncurrent quota to that level.<\/p>\n
They said most of the increase in the world's oil demand
\nprojected for 1998 would be met by non-OPEC countries which
\ncurrently accounted for 60 percent of the world market.<\/p>\n
They feared an increase in OPEC's quota would weaken oil
\nprices.<\/p>\n
\"OPEC oil production will apparently increase next year but we
\ndon't expect the increase to destabilize the market,\" Iran's Oil
\nMinister Bizhan Namdar Zangeneh was quoted by Antara as saying on
\nhis arrival at Cengkareng Airport yesterday.<\/p>\n
Oil prices currently stand at US$19 per barrel. (jsk)<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/opec-assesses-member-compliance-with-quota-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }