The debt
problems in some countries in the European Union are a worry for oil producers,
but the crude market is currently well-supplied, Qatar's state news agency, reported
Sunday, citing the country's oil minister.
"Oil demand is currently affected by the global economic growth,"
Mohammed Saleh al-Sada said, according to QNA.
Both the performance of the global economy and the debt crisis in some European
countries are playing a major role in the current oil prices, he said.
Al-Sada said that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is
closely monitoring developments on supply and demand front and Libya's output, which will be discussed in the
cartel's next meeting in December in Vienna.
U.S. crude prices slumped
last week as equity markets in Europe and Asia
fell after the U.S. Federal Reserve said the economy of the country, the
world's largest oil consumer, faces "serious downside risks." Officials
from OPECGulf members said Thursday they were not
concerned about the crude prices fall as it was mainly driven by speculators
and is likely to be short-lived.
The organization badly fractured in June after Iran,
Venezuela
and some other countries opposed a Saudi-led
effort to boost output in response to expected consumption growth. In the end,
the group didn't formally boost output, but Saudi
Arabia and other Gulf countries increased production in the wake of the Libya
outage.
Gulf oil producers are expected to keep their production around current levels
until Libya's
output recovers, a Gulf OPEC delegate said Thursday, adding that he expected
OPEC will reach agreement at the December meeting after acrimonious talks broke
down in June.
The official comments echo those of OPEC secretary general Abdalla Salem
el-Badri who told reporters in Dubai
last week that extent of discussion on the organization's quota system depends
on the state of the Libyan oil recovery.
El-Badri didn't predict what action OPEC would take in December, but said he
was confident of the group's ability to coalesce as it has in the past when
confronted with difficult market conditions.