Qatar oil minister says markets well supplied; no shortage anywhere: report

Dubai (Platts)--23May2012/405 am EDT/805 GMT

Qatari Oil Minister Mohammed al-Sada said Wednesday that oil markets were currently well supplied and there was no shortage anywhere in the world, official Qatar news agency QNA reported.

"We do not see any shortage of oil supplies in any part of the world," he told reporters on the sidelines of a cement conference in the Qatari capital Doha.

Sada also said that OPEC ministers due to meet in Vienna on June 14 would review markets and the supply situation at that time, refusing to speculate on the likely outcome of the meeting.

OPEC last met in Vienna in December and agreed to set a ceiling of 30 million b/d for all 12 members, but it did not allocate individual quotas. With Iranian exports down because of sanctions, other OPEC producers with excess capacity such as cartel heavyweight Saudi Arabia have boosted their output to beyond the agreed ceiling.

The latest Platts survey of OPEC's production for April estimated total output by the group at 31.71 million b/d, up from 31.39 million b/d in March.

EU sanctions banning the import of Iranian crude oil come into effect on July 1, with some analysts anticipating further displacement or loss of Iranian barrels.

Iran is OPEC's second biggest producer.

Iranian oil output fell in April to 3.28 million b/d, from 3.4 million b/d in March, as markets prepare for the imposition of US financial sanctions on June 28 and the EU ban on July 1.

Exports to Europe have already dipped, partly because banking restrictions already in force have made it difficult for some refiners to process payments to the National Iranian Oil Company.

At the same time, the US has been offering exemptions from the financial sanctions to countries which agree significant reductions in their import of Iranian oil. Japan has already been granted a waiver, having reached an agreement with Washington in March under which Japanese refiners will reduce their intake of Iranian oil by between 15% and 20%. Iran's other major oil customers in Asia are China, India and South Korea.

--Kate Dourian, kate_dourian@platts.com

--Edited by Deepa Vijiyasingam, deepa_vijiyasingam@platts.com

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