OPEC ministers meeting in Nigeria Thursday have decided to cut crude oil production by 500,000 barrels per day as of February 1, 2007, Nigeria's Junior Minister of Petroleum Resources and acting OPEC President, Edmund Daukoru, announced.
"We do not have any intention to starve the world oil market, but we must ensure that we protect our interests as oil producers,” Daukoru said.
He said the cut would not destabilize the world oil market since non-OPEC oil producers would still be injecting 1.8 million barrels per day of crude oil into the market.
The ministers from 11 oil-producing countries decided to hold off the reduction until February in response to requests by northern countries who asked that OPEC wait until after their winter season is over.
OPEC, which pumps out one-third of the world's oil, decided at a meeting in Doha in October to lower production by 1.2 million barrels a day in reaction to price drops which went below 60 dollars a barrel. It was the first time the 11-nation organization cut production in two years.
The ministers feared a supply glut could develop in the second quarter if peak winter demand failed to lower abundant reserves.
There was speculation in October that the Abuja meeting would see a cut in production to about 500,000 barrels per day.
Opening the conference on Thursday, Daukoru said OPEC member countries must work toward a stable market condition for oil and gas supplies.
"The condition must guarantee fair price to producers without endangering world economic growth," he said.
"We must sustain our efforts to engage the major consuming countries and producing blocs to achieve a better demand forecast and to secure additional production capacity," he said.
Dokaru also announced after the conference that Angola was to become the 12th member of OPEC.
Angola currently produces 1.4 million barrels per day (159 litres per barrel) and is aiming to increase its production to 2 million barrels by the end of 2007.
(Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa), 15/12/2006)