'OPEC looks to cut output, wants price over $60'

Tehran, Dec 12: Most OPEC members are in favour of a cut in oil output to combat excess supplies and to ensure prices stay above a barrel, Iran's oil minister said on Tuesday.

''Considering the considerable supply surplus over demand we are trying to cut production,'' Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry's news Web site.

''Iran, like most OPEC members, does not consider an oil price of less than a barrel as appropriate,'' he said before leaving for an OPEC meeting in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Traditionally a price hawk within the OPEC cartel, Iran has favoured an output cut at the Abuja meeting for some time.

Iran's OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said the Abuja meeting must take into account a number of factors weighing on oil prices such as plentiful U.S. oil stocks, slower-than-expected world economic growth, excess supply and projected increases in non-OPEC output.

Hasan Qabazard, OPEC's director of research, told Reuters on Monday that a narrow majority of OPEC members favoured cutting production again at the Abuja meeting.

Reuters