OPEC may lower production ceilings

Iraq's oil minister said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will likely decide to cut oil output at its Dec. 14 meeting in Vienna as global oil demand is expected to decline next year.Iraq's Oil Minister Abdul-Kareem Luaibi, who was in Tokyo for meetings with Japanese companies, told reporters that he expects oil prices to trade between $100 and $120 a barrel, which is "reasonable" and "acceptable" for Iraq. Iran's Governor at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Mohammad Ali Khatibi said on Monday that global crude markets are in balance. Speaking in Riyadh, Khatibi said he foresees a "positive" meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries next month. Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi also made similar remarks. There is no oversupply, al-Naimi said in the Saudi Arabian capital on Monday, adding that he is "very happy" with crude prices, Bloomberg reported. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets on Dec. 14 in Vienna to decide whether it needs to alter production targets. Oil ministers from Iran, Nigeria and Algeria said on Nov. 13 that markets aren't over-supplied, a sign they see little need to alter the group's output yet. The converging view of Saudi Arabia and Iran, OPEC's biggest members, was earlier announced by Iranian officials. In October Khatibi, whose country holds presidency over the world oil cartel, said on Saturday that OPEC members are narrowing down their differences over production ceiling, given the deteriorating economic conditions in the advanced countries. "We do not accept that a gap exists in the OPEC since different views have always existed in the OPEC," Khatibi told FNA, dismissing media reports on the widening of rifts among the OPEC members in their latest meeting. Also in an interview on Monday, Khatibi said, "There were two views on global demand in June, one was optimistic and the other was cautious," he said. "Now everyone is convinced that we need to be cautious." The current outlook for demand is not as "rosy" as some of OPEC's "optimistic" members had anticipated in June, Khatibi said. OPEC should be wary of a possible drop in demand next year, Khatibi said on Monday. He said the opposing views had nothing to do with politics and were due "purely" to different economic data and projections.