With oil prices trading at $115 a barrel the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is likely to keep its formal production policy steady when it meets in two weeks, Libya's top oil official said Tuesday.
"There is some concern about extra production being in the market, but at today's oil price I think OPEC may decide to keep production unchanged," Shokri Ghanem, head of the Libyan National Oil Co., told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone from Tripoli.
Benchmark U.S. oil futures were trading Tuesday at around $115 a barrel, down about 22% from a record high of $147 a barrel in July, but still roughly 60% above year-ago levels.
Ghanem said Libya was pumping around 1.75 million barrels a day and still had 45,000 barrels a day shut from a a drilling accident in May at the al-Jurf oil field operated by Total SA (TOT).
OPEC is scheduled to meet Sept. 9 in Vienna for the first time in six months.