Oil market doesn't need any more supply from OPEC for now: Libya

Vienna (Platts)--14Mar2007

The world oil market does not need additional OPEC oil supply for the
time being, Libya's top oil official said Wednesday.
Shokri Ghanem, head of Libya's National Oil Co., said OPEC was ready to
pump more oil if there was a need for it, but that this was not the case at
present.
"I don't think there is a real need for doing anything at this time," he
told reporters in Vienna a day ahead of OPEC's ministerial meeting.
"Once we are sure that the market is out of balance, which means that
there is a need for more oil, we will put more oil on the market," he said.
"We will see it reflected in the price, we will see it reflected in the
stocks," he said.
For the time being, Ghanem said that the current outlook did not point to
a need for OPEC to increase production later this year, but he allowed for the
possibility that there could be a need, "maybe after the summer."
The Libyan official also said OPEC was not overly concerned yet about the
recent falls on world stock markets.
"We are not very much worried...we have to watch whether it is a trend or
not," he said.
A number of OPEC ministers gathering in Vienna Tuesday signaled that they
were unlikely to make any adjustments to crude production targets because
improving compliance with 1.7 million b/d of cuts agreed late last year had
stabilized world oil markets.
The International Energy Agency, the West's energy watchdog, said Tuesday
that the world needed more oil from OPEC, predicting in its latest monthly oil
market report that the fall in OECD oil stocks in the first three months of
2007 could be the biggest first quarter stock draw for more than ten years.