The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is likely to increase
the group's output by 500,000 barrels a day when it meets in Abu Dhabi
on Dec. 5, Iraq's oil minister said Tuesday.
"A production increase has been put on the agenda of OPEC's
extraordinary meeting which will be held in Abu Dhabi," Hussein
al-Shahristani told Dow Jones Newswires in a telephone interview from
Baghdad. "The potential for that increase for the time being wouldn't
exceed 500,000 barrels a day."
But the minister believes increasing OPEC's output wouldn't
bring down prices because international oil markets had sufficient
crude supply. "The expected output increase wouldn't solve the
problem," al-Shahristani said, adding the increase in oil prices is
caused by speculation on the oil market rather than a shortage of
supply."
The Iraqi minister said OPEC wouldn't discuss the impact of
the weak dollar on the group's earnings or look at how a currency
basket might work during its December meeting. OPEC members during a
November meeting in Riyadh agreed to set up a committee consisting of
oil and finance ministers to study the impact of the sliding dollar on
their economies. "Finance ministers won't be present at December
meeting to discuss that subject," he said.