OPEC president says crude output quotas no longer relevant

Kuwait City (Platts)--9May2005

OPEC's ten members with quotas are currently producing 29.7-mil b/d of crude,
more than 2-mil b/d above their 27.5-mil b/d ceiling, and will continue to
pump at this level through June, OPEC's Kuwaiti president Sheikh Ahmed Fahed
al-Sabah said Monday. 

Output from Saudi Arabia, the group's biggest producer, is running at "almost
10-mil b/d," Sheikh Ahmed said, more than 1-mil b/d above the kingdom's
8.937-mil b/d quota. Quotas, he said, had become irrelevant. Asked how much he
thought Saudi Arabia was currrently producing, the OPEC president said:
"Almost 10-mil b/d, I think. You can ask the Saudis." A Platts survey
estimated Saudi output at 9.4-mil b/d in March and preliminary soundings
indicate that production in April may not have been much above the 9.4-9.5-mil
b/d level. Sheikh Ahmed's estimate of OPEC-10 output at 29.7-mil b/d has not
been openly challenged by any other minister. But given that various
independent estimates pegged March OPEC-10 March volumes around 28-mil
b/d, it is unclear how output could have been ramped up by some 1.7-mil b/d.

Read more about OPEC in Platts OPEC Guide
http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/News%20Features/opec/index.xml

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