OPEC May Allow Pumping Above Limits

Mar 12, 2005 — By Haitham Haddadin

KUWAIT (Reuters) - OPEC may agree at its meeting next week to allow members informally to pump above official oil output limits to cool scorching prices, the cartel's president said on Saturday.

With oil prices again within sight of $55 a barrel, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is widely expected to maintain its formal production ceiling of 27 million barrels per day (bpd) at its March 16 meeting in Isfahan, Iran.

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Sheikh Ahmad acknowledged that sky-high oil prices had already tempted some members to pump above quotas. A Reuters survey showed the 10 producers excluding Iraq together pumping 600,000 bpd above the official ceiling in February.

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Most OPEC members are pumping at full tilt. As was the case last year, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are the only cartel producers with significant spare capacity and will have to take responsibility for any further supply increase. But non-OPEC producers are unlikely to heed such a call. The three biggest — Russia, Mexico and Norway — are virtually pumping flat out.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=574551&page=2

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