Business > OPEC looks at boosting products output

"Some OPEC countries that have export refineries, like Kuwait ... and others, are looking if they can help ... maybe by operating their refineries at full capacity, rescheduling their maintenance program. If they have some products stored in commercial inventories that may be made available," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference in Italy.

"I know for sure Kuwait is looking at that ... I'm sure (Venezuela) is looking at what else they can do in this respect," he added.

OPEC said on Friday it was considering further measures to help ease problems caused by Hurricane Katrina, which hammered the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast on Monday, cutting out some 2 million barrels a day (bpd) of refining capacity there.

The group's spare oil capacity is mostly of heavy, sour crude in Saudi Arabia, which is hard to process into the transport fuels that the U.S. needs urgently.

SAUDI READY TO PUMP

Saudi Arabia has said it is willing to pump an extra 1.5 million bpd of crude but there seems little appetite for this at the moment. OPEC's president, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah has said he will propose a 500,000 bpd rise in supplies when the group meets on September 19 in Vienna.

"The issue is not simply producing more, it's producing more if there are people willing to take it," Shihab-Eldin said. "The (Saudi) offer is already on the table, we haven't seen signs that people are interested to take that."

Shihab-Eldin added that there could be different crudes making up the possible 500,000 bpd increase.

"There are a number of countries that have 50,000 (bpd) other than Saudi Arabia, (countries) that have 50,000 barrels, 70,000 barrels, or they are planning to bring on line from their expansion of facilities ... that could go to contribute to this 500,000," he said.

But he said had not seen any proposal yet from OPEC members to suspend quotas.

The U.S. government and countries around the world plan to release some 60 million barrels of stockpiled petroleum into the hurricane-hit U.S. market to tame runaway prices. Crude has hit record highs in the past week while U.S. gasoline prices have jumped by nearly a fifth.

The 10 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries bound by formal production quotas produced 28.21 million bpd in July, slightly more than their 28 million bpd output ceiling and close to capacity.

OPEC countries are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. They control 40 percent of world oil production and about two thirds of the world's proven oil reserves.

2005-09-04