Vienna (Platts)--13Mar2009

Kuwait's newly appointed oil minister Sheikh Ahmed Abdullah al-Sabah said
Friday that it is too early to predict the outcome of OPEC's meeting on Sunday
but noted that the producers club faces a difficult task trying to balance oil
markets without pushing the global economy deeper into recession.

Sheikh Ahmed said the ordinary OPEC conference would have to review
conditions on the oil market and whether current oil prices are suitable for
oil exporting nations, official news agency KUNA quoted him as saying before
he left for Vienna.

OPEC ministers will consider whether to keep the existing output ceiling
-- currently at 24.845 million b/d for the 11 members bound by production
targets -- or to cut production if it appears that there is still oversupply
on the market.

Not all OPEC members are calling for a further production cut, he added.

"We will all listen and work with our brothers," Sheikh Ahmed said,
adding that the market was not necessarily oversupplied because US stocks were
declining and would absorb some of the excess crude.

However, he said the group wants to avoid taking action that would "push
the global economy deeper into recession."

OPEC faces a "difficult balancing act" between the interests of producers
and what is needed to ensure the resumption of global economic growth, he
said. "We want an oil price that achieves the budgetary needs of the producing
countries but that at the same time is not at odds with the needs of the
global economy."

Lower oil prices do not necessarily mean that upstream investments should
stop, the Kuwaiti minister said. Producing countries should take advantage of
lower industry costs to invest in upstream capacity, he added.

--Staff reports, kate_dourian@platts.com