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No Need for Change to OPEC Oil Supply Target: Qatar | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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VIENNA (Reuters) – OPEC has no need to change oil supply targets at its meeting in Vienna on Wednesday as prices remain high despite plentiful supply, Qatar’s Oil Minister said on Monday.

“In my opinion, I don’t think we are going to see any change, even though inventories are high,” Abdullah al-Attiyah told Reuters by telephone.

“The oil price and fluctuation is one of the many reasons that would lead to a rollover in supply targets.”

U.S. crude traded at just over $81 a barrel on Monday, just above the top end of a range of $70-$80 that OPEC’s top producer Saudi Arabia has named as a fair price for both producers and consumers of oil.

High inventories showed that there was no shortage of crude in the market, Attiyah said.

OPEC will discuss compliance with existing supply curbs at the ministerial meeting on Wednesday, Attiyah said.

“We need very strong compliance,” Attiyah said. “If we say rollover, it means with existing targets.”

OPEC has steadily increased output, without formally raising its supply target, since April 2009, as higher prices encouraged producers to add supply to the market. In February, OPEC delivered just 53 percent of pledged output curbs of 4.2 million barrels per day that it agreed in late 2008. That was down from a peak of 81 percent reached in March and April 2009.

OPEC will have to watch the market closely as oil demand grows in some parts of the world such as Asia, but is still slow elsewhere.

Developed countries have shown little appetite for more oil as their economies emerge from recession, leaving oil producers to fight for market share in developing giant China.