The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) ministers will work out details of a 1 million barrels per day cut from the group's actual oil production when they meet in Qatar on Oct. 19, Qatar's energy minister said on Sunday.
"OPEC ministers agreed to hold an emergency meeting in Doha on Oct. 19," said a statement issued from the office of Qatari Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, which was carried on the official news agency QNA.
"They [ministers] will discuss details of cutting 1 million barrels a day from the organization's actual production in a bid to halt the fall in prices," the statement added.
OPEC's first plan to cut production since April 2004 was first aired more than a week ago, but ministers have been debating whether to cut from actual output of roughly 27.5 million bpd or from the group's notional 28 million bpd ceiling.
OPEC President Edmund Daukoru told Reuters on Sunday that OPEC must act now to stem a "catastrophic" slide in prices, which have fallen by 20 percent since July to below $60 per barrel.
U.S. crude rose to $58.57 a barrel on Friday, up from a 2006 low of $57.22 hit on Thursday, after Norway ordered the shutdown of two oilfields and following a surprise drop in winter fuel inventories in top consumer the United States.
Daukoru said there was broad agreement in OPEC that the 1 million bpd cut should be made from the average actual output level over the past 12 months, which is close to OPEC's existing production ceiling.
During that time, most member producers have been pumping at -- if not well beyond -- their individual OPEC quotas. But Indonesia and Venezuela have fallen well below theirs and Iran has had difficulty matching its limit.
Iran and Venezuela do not want to cede market share to those -- such as top exporter Saudi Arabia and Algeria -- pumping beyond formal OPEC limits, delegates have said. A cut from quotas would have spared Venezuela, Indonesia and, to a certain extent, Iran, from making a cut in actual supply.
Algeria's Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said on Sunday that OPEC would make an official and "coherent" announcement on the 1 million bpd cut at the Doha meeting.
"The cut would certainly have a direct impact in the market," he said.
(Reuters)