Oil market oversupplied, demand weak -Kuwait

Jul 01, 2009 at 14:46

UPDATE 1: Oil minister doubts OPEC will raise output in near future, calls on members to stick to agreed cuts.

OPEC is unlikely to raise oil output when its minister meet in September as the oil market is still oversupplied, Kuwait's oil minister said on Wednesday.

"I doubt there will be a further increase in production," Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah told reporters at parliament when asked for comment about similar views by fellow OPEC members about the September meeting. The minister said demand was still less than supply.

Kuwait would like to see stricter compliance from OPEC members with agreed output curbs, Sheikh Ahmad said. "I would like to see more compliance."

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed cuts of 4.2 million barrels per day to supply last year to match the fall in global oil demand due to the recession.

Last month, members delivered about 72 percent compliance rate, down from 75 percent in May of those cuts, according to a Reuters survey of oil firms, OPEC officials and analysts. OPEC pumps more than a third of the world's oil.