Iran says OPEC undecided over any new oil cut

TEHRAN, Nov 20 (Reuters) Iran's oil minister said on Monday OPEC was still undecided about making a further cut in production at a meeting in December and needed to assess the impact on prices of its cut in November.

Some other OPEC ministers have appeared to be lining up expectations for a fresh output cut when the exporters' group meets in Nigeria on Dec. 14, deepening the 1.2 million barrel per day cut imposed this month.

''No decision has been taken yet. We should assess the impact of OPEC's production cut on the prices and then we will decide based on that,'' Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh said in Tehran, where he was attending an energy conference.

Iran's OPEC governor, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, told reporters: ''OPEC does not have any specific price for crude oil.

Everything depends on the impact of this cut.'' Also speaking on the sidelines of the conference in Tehran, the acting secretary-general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Mohammed Barkindo, urged the market to give OPEC some time before judging the effect of the November cut.

Some traders have questioned OPEC's commitment to implementing the cut.

''The market is wrong about OPEC's commitment. The decision to cut production has come into effect from Nov. 1. We should at least wait for one month to assess the impact of OPEC's decision,'' Barkindo said.

He also said OPEC's main preoccupation was ''to rebalance the market and to create a balance between supply and demand''.

Qatar Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah told Reuters on Saturday that OPEC had ''no choice'' but to agree another reduction in production -- possibly by 500,000 to 1 million bpd -- because markets were still oversupplied.

On Sunday, Algeria's Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil also said that another cut was possible due to fears that prices could slump again in the second quarter.

REUTERS SBA DB2050