OPEC ministers still haven't reached consensus on a production cut, Nigerian oil minister Odein Ajumogobia said Friday, as they gather for a hastily-convened emergency meeting in the Austrian capital.
Iran's oil minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said the important consideration for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was to better balance the global oil market rather than target a specific oil price.
"We don't look at the price," said Nozari. "We try to have a balance between demand and supply.
Eager to rein in what it terms an alarming slide in oil prices, OPEC is likely to cut production at its emergency meeting Friday though there are still questions over how deep the decrease should be.
An OPEC delegate said OPEC's core Gulf producers continue to favor a production cut of 1 million barrels a day, or possibly as much as 1.5 million barrels a day. The official said the Gulf producers expect some resistance to just cutting by 1 million barrels a day.
Others within the group, led by Iran and Libya, have advocated taking 2 million barrels a day off global markets. The head of Libya's oil industry Shokri Ghanem said Friday there were "many options" and OPEC would do whatever it takes to "balance the market."
Kuwait's oil minister Mohammad Al Olaim reaffirmed his view that oil markets were oversupplied. He said any OPEC production cut shouldn't impact the global economy.
The group is meeting as oil prices skirt 16-month lows, weighed down by fears of a binding global recession. Early Friday in London, December light, sweet crude futures were down 64 cents at $67.20 a barrel.