Opec ministers gather in Angola

Traders will be watching the meeting with interest after the group brought in emergency quotas a year ago in the midst of the economic crisis to stabilise oil prices.

Speaking on Monday, Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi Arabian minister, whose nation is Opec’s most influential, said only that crude prices were now "excellent".

"We will look at the market, that is all," he said.

Price rise

Oil prices have risen since the group imposed its restrictions but experts say the resulting stockpiles of crude could weaken the market when demand falls in the spring. Abdullah El-Badri, Opec’s secretary-general, said that raising production levels next year is "not on our radar at this time".

"But if you look at fundamentals, especially inventory … the stocks, they are a bit high," Badri said. "So we have to do something about this." Opec ministers are also likely have one eye on Iraq’s recovering oil industry and its ambitious plans to ramp up its production to levels that could rival Saudi Arabia.

But Hussein al-Shahristani, Iraq‘s oil minister, said that he did not expect to tackle the question of production allowances for Iraq, which he said was a special case as it was recovering from war. "I don’t expect any discussion on setting quotas or even discussing till we reach the point when there is a significant increase of Iraqi production," he said. That increases is not expected for another two or three years.

Source: Africa Business