Non-OPEC states weaken oil price bid

Non-OPEC states weaken oil price bid

KUWAIT (Agencies): Non-OPEC producers are undermining attempts
to boost oil prices by failing to respond to pleas for market
cooperation with OPEC, Kuwait's oil minister said in remarks
published yesterday.

"There must be cooperation and coordination between producers
inside and outside the organization to stabilize the oil market
and to allow prices to rise to suitable levels," Abdul-Mohsen al-
Mudej was quoted as saying by al-Watan daily.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has
not changed its production ceiling since September 1993 and often
criticizes non-OPEC producers for pumping up the volume and thus
thwarting its efforts to boost prices.

Global demand has grown by two million barrels per day in the
past two years but most of that has been grabbed by an extra 1.7
million bpd of output from producers outside OPEC.

Mudej said lack of a response from non-OPEC members to
requests by OPEC to cooperate on production was devaluing OPEC's
attempts at curbing its excess production.

Meanwhile, the OPEC secretariat announced in Vienna yesterday
that the average price of the reference basket of OPEC rose last
week from $15.79 to $16.18 dollars a barrel.

The basket's average price was $17.82 a barrel in the year's
second quarter, but it declined in June and July.

The level remains far below the organization's target of $21 a
barrel, which it has vainly tried to reach for almost three years
now.