OPEC, the producer of 40 percent of the world's oil, expects crude markets will have a surplus of 300,000 barrels a day during the second quarter, as winter demand eases, an official from the group said.
“The oversupply will be about 300,000 barrels a day by the spring, in the second quarter, which is normal,” Hasan Qabazard, OPEC's head of research told reporters in London today. “The market is balancing.”
The 12-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet in Vienna next month to decide whether to cut oil output to stem a drop in prices from a record $78.40 a barrel in July.
Crude oil for March delivery fell as much as $1.04, or 1.7 percent, to $58.85 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange today. It was trading at $59.03 at 9:51 a.m. in London.
Qabazard said OPEC members were not exceeding the 1.7 million barrels a day of output they had agreed to cut to revive prices.
(Bloomberg)