OPEC president says cartel committed to raising output in August

OPEC president says cartel committed to raising output in August

Paris (Platts)--9Jul2004


OPEC will go ahead with next month's planned 500,000 b/d production hike in a
further attempt to reduce high world oil prices, the cartel's president
Purnomo Yusgiantoro said Friday. 

"OPEC still has a commitment to raise its
quota by 500,000 b/d beginning in August," Yusgiantoro told reporters, AFP
reported from Jakarta. Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali Naimi told French daily
Liberation Friday that the increase was not up for review when ministers meet
in Vienna Jul 21 to review output policy. Yusgiantoro, who is Indonesia's
energy minister, also said OPEC would discuss a plan to raise its price band
at the Vienna meeting. "OPEC is still waiting for a report from its long-term
strategy team which will report to the members on its findings," he said. The
band has been set at $22-28/bbl since it was created in March 2000 and there
has been speculation this could be raised. Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh
last weekend said OPEC's board of directors would release a report on whether
to raise the band in September.

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