OPEC's Gulf states 'will support' second ceiling hike: Gulf source

London (Platts)--27Jun2005

OPEC's four Gulf Arab member countries will support a second 500,000 b/d
increase in the organization's crude output ceiling to 28.5-mil b/d, a Gulf
source said Monday. 

"The Gulf countries will support an increase," he said. OPEC's Kuwaiti
president, Sheikh Ahmed Fahed al-Sabah, said Saturday he had already started
consulting some members of the oil producer group on going ahead with the
second, "discretionary," stage of a 1-mil b/d output ceiling increase agreed
Jun 15 in Vienna, adding that he had spoken with the oil ministers of Saudi
Arabia and Qatar, Ali Naimi and Abdullah al-Attiyah. Sheikh Ahmed said a
decision to proceed with the second increase would mainly depend on how oil
prices evolved. "I think we have to wait for a while to see exactly what is
the behavior of the prices because until now it is not very clear," he said. 

OPEC has still to implement officially the first 500,000 b/d tranche that will
take its ceiling to 28-mil b/d on Jul 1 but its actual output in May was,
according to OPEC and Platts estimates, some 200,000 b/d higher.

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http://www.platts.com/Oil/Resources/News%20Features/opec/index.xml.

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