NEW DELHI: OPEC members need to adhere more strictly to existing quotas, Kuwaiti oil minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah said on Monday, adding he was not worried about softening demand.
"I’m not worried about demand, I’m worried about the quotas," he said in New Delhi.
"OPEC should be more committed to their quotas. There is a bit of slippage here and there."
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets in Vienna on Oct. 14 and Libya, Iraq, Qatar, Ecuador and Kuwait have all said they see no need for a change in policy.
Venezuela’s Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Sunday he was comfortable with global oil prices, but OPEC should focus on high global crude inventories.
Compliance among members with implied output curbs has sunk to just above 50 percent as oil has largely traded within the OPEC’s preferred zone of $70 to $80 per barrel.
OPEC would be comfortable with 75 percent to 85 percent compliance, not the current level of 52 percent, he said.
Kuwait’s current oil output is 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), Sheikh Ahmad said, and added that Russian ESPO supplies to Asia were not a concern.
Russia has been selling this new blend from the eastern port of Kozmino since late 2009. Most of the buyers of the medium-heavy sweet grade are trading companies as well as refiners in South Korea, China and Japan.
The oil, transported via the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline in the far east of the country, has brought prices of competing waterborne Middle East and Asia-Pacific crudes under strain.
