No emergency OPEC meeting; some at ease on price

DUBAI, Sep 27: OPEC has no plans as yet to call an emergency meeting on supply cuts, an OPEC official said on Wednesday, amid signs some of the group's biggest producers are at ease over oil's 20 percent decline since mid-July.

The steepest price drop in 15 years -- from .40 a barrel for U.S. oil in mid-July to below earlier this week -- prompted OPEC's President Edmund Daukoru to tell Reuters on Tuesday ''something needs to be done to steady the price.'' The OPEC official said the exporter group that pumps a third of the world's crude was discussing oil's drop, but had yet to call for an extraordinary session.

When the time does come for OPEC to cut output, the focus will be on Saudi Arabia, the world's top oil exporter, and major Gulf OPEC producers Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

But these countries appear in no rush to act and some OPEC sources believe U.S. crude must drop decisively below before Gulf producers consider a cut.

Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ali al-Jarrah al-Sabah said on Wednesday, with U.S. crude above , that most OPEC ministers were content with prices and not inclined now to reduce output.

A week ago, influential Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi also described a U.S. crude price of around as reasonable.

''Now, there is no inclination to make any amendment,'' Kuwait's Sheikh Ali told Al Arabiya television.

That view was echoed on Wednesday in fellow OPEC countries Libya and Qatar.

''Prices are up after the OPEC President's comments -- and that may take away some of the urgency,'' said an OPEC delegate.

As a group OPEC has been producing below its 28 million barrels per day ceiling all year.

But Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE have been pumping well beyond their allocated limits to make up for those struggling to meet theirs, such as Venezuela and Indonesia.

''We'd want any cut to be collective, although in reality the Gulf producers would shoulder the burden,'' said an OPEC source.

OPEC last met on Sept. 11, when oil was around , and decided to leave its output ceiling at 28 million barrels per day until the next scheduled meeting on Dec. 14.

Gulf sources said any emergency meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries was unlikely before the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan ends in late October.

OPEC has carefully avoided setting a target price for oil, but some individual ministers have indicated a comfort level.

Iran has said it wants the price for OPEC's basket of crudes to hold above -- around a barrel for U.S. crude.

OPEC President Daukoru told Reuters on Tuesday that global oil supply was expected to be a ''colossal'' 1.8 million bpd above demand by the second quarter of 2007 and that ''something needs to be done to steady the price.''

REUTERS