OPEC has said it is prepared to leave oil supplies unchanged in the shadow of a global economic downturn that is eating into petroleum demand.
Ministers from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, who will meet tomorrow , said they see no need to lift output despite the prospect that U.N.-supervised Iraqi exports could remain on hold.
"This is a straightforward meeting. There is no need to increase production," said Libya's OPEC representative Ahmed Abdulkarim.
OPEC's July 3 conference is timed to coincide with a vote at the United Nations on revised sanctions against Iraq that will influence the fate for months to come of substantial Iraqi supplies.
Baghdad a month ago suspended deliveries under the U.N.'s oil-for-food exchange in protest at Anglo-American efforts to overhaul the 11-year-old Gulf War embargo.
Oil ministers were expected to need to raise output to compensate for the Iraqi stoppage. But a recent fall in crude prices has left producers no option but to leave production unchanged in defense of their $25 a barrel price target. "According to the fundamentals in the market the situation is normal," said OPEC Secretary-General Ali Rodriguez.