OPEC Unlikely to Raise Output Soon, Chief Says

OPEC President Ali Rodriguez said the group won’t consider boosting output quotas until its next meeting Jan. 17 unless there is a strong increase in demand. “There won’t be an increase in production until the next OPEC meeting unless there is an increase in demand for some reason, such as a very strong winter,” Rodriguez said. Rodriguez, who is also Venezuela’s energy minister, said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries wants to avoid a sharp drop in oil prices caused by excessive supply. His counterpart from Kuwait, Oil Minister Sheik Saud al Sabah, sounded a more hawkish tone: “Anyone who believes that we will return to the low price in the $20s [a barrel] or $22 a barrel I think is dreaming--it is not realistic,” the minister said in a live two-hour debate on Kuwait state television. “We will not allow in any form or shape world oil markets to collapse again like in 1998. It was a disaster,” he said, referring to when prices fell below $10 a barrel. OPEC has raised output quotas four times this year by a total of 3.7 million barrels a day to a 21-year high, but prices remain above the cartel’s targeted range of $22 to $28 a barrel. Crude oil for January delivery closed up 24 cents at $35.40 Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the last day of trading for the week because of the Thanksgiving holiday. Near-term crude futures have risen nearly 40% in New York year to date.