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OPEC could cut oil output if prices fall below $70 US
Published on February 10, 2010 by oilprices · No CommentsOPEC member countries will call for further compliance before considering any oil output cut if oil falls below $70 US dollars per barrel, a member of Kuwait’s Supreme Petroleum Council said Tuesday.
“If oil goes into a sustainable decline below $70 for five to six weeks OPEC will consider cutting but first they will demand compliance,” SPC Member Imad Al Atiqi told Zawya Dow Jones in a telephone interview. OPEC won’t lower production if crude remains in the $70 to 90 a barrel price range, Al Atiqi said.
Meanwhile, OPEC member Kuwait is projecting a 22.4 billion dollar budget deficit for the 2010 and 2011 fiscal year after raising spending by more than 33 percent, according to a draft budget seen on Tuesday. The budget still has to be debated and passed by the Kuwait parliament.
OPEC’s fourth-largest producer has projected a deficit in each of the past 11 fiscal years, but has ended 10 of them with huge surpluses. The National Bank of Kuwait projects a 24-billion-dollar surplus in this fiscal year. In the past 10 years, Kuwait has accumulated around 123 billion dollars of budget surplus, based on available official data.