The head of Opec said today he had started consultations with other oil ministers on an additional oil output increase by the cartel as crude prices touched $60 a barrel.
Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah, who is also Kuwait's oil minister, said he had already spoken with Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and Qatar's energy minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah.
“We started yesterday, Friday,” Sheikh Ahmad told journalists in parliament. “I spoke with Attiyah and Naimi ... we started to consult and to see exactly what will be the situation.“
Asked about the minister's thoughts on the subject, Sheikh Ahmad said: “I think we have to wait a while to see exactly what is the behavior of the prices.“
Oil prices extended a streak of record highs yesterday, touching $60 a barrel.
Opec agreed at a meeting last week to raise its formal production quotas by 500,000 barrels per day to 28 million bpd, roughly matching its current actual output, and promised another 500,000 bpd increase within a matter of weeks should prices stay high.
Most Opec members are already pumping at full capacity, and Sheikh Ahmad said last week that any further increase could only be supplied by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and perhaps Kuwait.
Asked when a decision on the output increase might be reached, Sheikh Ahmad said: “We have to consult everybody to see exactly. I cannot say when, but we are already in the procedure.“
“Until now its not clear. When you are following the prices up and down, even after Isfahan (OPEC meeting in March) they hit $60, but after that they came down to the normal situation,” he added.